Is Social Media Harming Your Happiness?

Today I ran across a Reuters article by writer Belinda Goldsmith that caught my eye.  It was titled, Is Facebook Envy Making you Miserable?  The article begins:

LONDON (Reuters) - Witnessing friends' vacations, love lives and work successes on Facebook can cause envy and trigger feelings of misery and loneliness, according to German researchers.

A study conducted jointly by two German universities found rampant envy on Facebook, the world's largest social network that now has over one billion users and has produced an unprecedented platform for social comparison.

The researchers found that one in three people felt worse after visiting the site and more dissatisfied with their lives, while people who browsed without contributing were affected the most.

Goldsmith goes on to describe how many people feel much worse after logging on to Facebook than they did before.  Feelings of jealousy, envy and not measuring up seem to be common.  Apparently, many people are self-conscious and unhappy with their lives, and their on-line experience only serves to enhance their dissatisfaction.  Even in the virtual world, people apparently find the need to keep up with the Jones.  Goldsmith explains:

These feelings of envy were found to prompt some users to boast more about their achievements on the site run by Facebook Inc. to portray themselves in a better light.

I guess this is just beyond me. Now we have on-line one-upsmanship because we feel bad when we see our friends' exaggerated social media posts?  First of all, I have never understood why people waste their lives in the virtual world to begin with.  What is the attraction?  Do people really think others read what they write or care what they have to say?  And what's this business of on-line boasting or exaggerating to impress others with their lives?  Just yesterday as I was making my annual plans to run with the bulls in Pamplona this summer, I got a call from Mark Zuckerberg.  He asked if I thought envy on Facebook was causing as much trouble as Goldsmith says it is.  As I told him, when people have to resort to exaggerations in the virtual world to feel accepted, they've got bigger problems than Facebook.