Turns out all those people with their selfies and groupies are causing the rest of us ordinary folks great angst. There is now a very specific type of depression caused by reading Facebook!
We were out with friends last week (this group hasn't gotten together in years) and they started taking pictures and wanting to put them on Facebook - presumably perfectly normal. When I told them about what I'd recently read about viewing all these happy people on Facebook, doing spectacular things, with all their friends, and how it was making some of the readers depressed, they kind of quieted down and agreed how that could happen!
Say you have 50 Facebook 'friends' and every other day, every other one of these friends is posting a picture of a dinner out, a party they attended, good news about their kids grades in school, or their fantastic love life. WELL, viewing all that every day is enough to make you feel downright sad about your own life! You're no doubt thinking that you rarely do all these exciting things and that everyone other than you has a spectacular life. YOU ARE WRONG.
These same dumb-dumbs, with all this time on their hands, NEVER post about the fight they had with their boyfriend, the 20 pounds they gained, their miserable job, their rude neighbors, their horrible unwed sister who got pregnant and caused mom and dad to divorce, their shitty car that breaks down every day, their savings account with a whopping $5.02 in it, and so on and so on.
Think about it. If you ONLY told your (real) friends the good or happy stuff that happens, they too would think your life is persistently delightful. But that is NOT REAL LIFE. So every time you read these perky bits on Facebook, READ BETWEEN THE LINES. That group of seven smiling women? Four of them are divorced or considering it, or have been in an abusive relationship, or have an eating disorder or some kind of anxiety. And the other three aren't living a charmed life either, what with missing the train this morning and being late for an interview, getting a blister from uncomfortable shoes, and fighting with their husband about whether or not they can afford a vacation this year.
AND BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR those vacation pictures will be posted in a few months, but remember not to be jealous.... because I doubt they're also posting the $5000. unpaid credit card bill that goes along with it.
So don't let Facebook get you down. Let these people do what they have to do to feel better about their lives; send them a few LIKES but then get back to the real world - it's much more interesting here.