Facebook Friends Portraying Perfect Lives

551 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Sociological effects of facebook

Purpose
This article, titled “They Are Happier and Having Better Lives than I Am”: The Impact of Using Facebook on Perceptions of Others’ Lives, written by Hui-Tzu Grace Chou, Ph.D., and Nicholas Edge, B.S., discusses how Facebook shapes the way people perceive other peoples’ lives as being better than their own. This is because Facebook allows the user to take control of presenting their life to be more exciting or perfect than it is in reality. Facebook users tend to pick the most flattering pictures of themselves to post online. They are also more likely to only post the most exciting or positive things happening in their lives.
Method
To conduct the study, 425 undergraduate students were given a questionnaire asking several questions about their lives and Facebook. Some of the questions were regarding marital status, how long they have used Facebook, how many Facebook friends they have on their list, what type of relationships they have with their friends, how many hours they spend with them each week, time spent per week on Facebook, and what they thought about their frie...

Show More
Related

  • Media Friendships: The Quagmire Of Social Media Friendships

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reading “The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships”, Curtis Silver expresses his idea of who we consider to be our friends when it comes to social media. What stood out to me in this essay is how Silver asked if social media created fake friends. In which I have decided to define the term fake friends. When I think of the term fake friends, I think of someone who claims to be a true friend, when in fact they are quite the opposite. Fake friends in my opinion are those who will talk negatively about you behind your back, they could really care less about that your feelings or what you think even. I also feel that fake friends are those who use you in order to achieve something that benefits them and only them. In terms of social media, If someone

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Is Facebook Making Us Lonely By Stephen Marche

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    The attraction of users to Facebook, or social media in general, isn’t that difficult to comprehend. Over the course of the past 60 years, the percentage of people live alone has increased by 17 percent. In the 50’s it was 10 percent, in 2010, it was estimated at 27 percent. The promise of a greater connection seems extremely attractive to those living in solitary. Here is the irony, what Facebook and Social media provides, differs a great deal from what is needed to create and sustain deeper emotional AND Lasting

    Read More

  • What Technology Can T Change About Happiness Analysis

    1521 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, as far as I am concerned, the above authors fail to mention the positive effects Facebook has on our lives. Facebook is also very useful. It enables us to keep in touch with friends and family all around the world. A modern journalist, Adam Piore in his article, “What Technology Can’t Change About Happiness,” also argues that “The overall effect of technology is to overcome the constraints of time and location that would have proven insurmountable before” (Piore 9). Piore’s purpose here is to tell people that technology can be a good thing as well. I also believe the same: with the video call function, we are able to see each other’s face and talk with ease. If some people are not familiar with video call, they can even voice message others, making communication easier while reducing the hassle of typing. No doubt, Facebook has greatly changed our lives with both positive and negative effects. And I also believe that it is when we find the balance between technology and relationships can we enhance our happiness level and relationship with people. That is, we need to go out and have face-to-face conversations with people while using technology to help us keep connection with

    Read More

  • Stephen Marche's Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?

    1662 Words  | 4 Pages

    One’s amount of Facebook reflects how popular one wish to appear online more than how healthy one’s friendship truly is. Constant usage of Facebook allows user to potentially feel like they have a meaningful social life, when in reality, they are missing something. In Stephen Marche’s 2102 article, “Is Facebook making Us Lonely?” he notes that Facebook was introduced to the world in the midst of spreading and intensifying loneliness, an idea to which he greatly attributes Facebook’s appeal and success (Marche 26). Initially, social networking sites seem to be evidence of modern-day social interaction being easier and more convenient than ever.

    Read More

  • The Lonely, Useless, and Self-Absorbed Society

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    The day of an average teenager consists of getting up in the morning, checking how many notifications he or she got on Facebook, posting a “selfie” on Instagram that was somehow shot in Mathematics, then ending the day tweeting about one’s absolute hatred of school and why it is a waste of time. But how are social networking sites making one’s life any better? What are one’s constant updates about their lives proving to the world? Do they make people happier or supplement people’s lives for the better? The use of social networking is expanding the ever growing narcissistic, solitary, and lazy society that the world is soon to become.

    Read More

  • Narcissism In Social Media

    1942 Words  | 4 Pages

    “I didn't know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time –Betty White (“Betty White Quotes,” 2014, para. 1).” This quote can be interpreted to fit with several of the social media avenues that many people spend their time on. Day in and day out people post, tweet, share, and pin countless times throughout the world. These different forms of communication were first created for an easier way for people to connect with others. Yet now, so much time is spent on these social sites that it has warped the interactive part and is causing more damage than good. Many are growing a desire and are living for the amount of “likes” they can receive on a post or how many re-tweets they can generate. Instead of going to these outlets to participate in a partial portion of their social lives, people are filling that time with the technological aspect of communication. As White said, this can become an inordinate amount of wasted time and can ultimately grow into further damaging circumstances. These different social media channels can cause emotional harm through disparaging the relationship between friends, conjuring of a narcissistic personality, and the retrogradation of ones self-esteem.

    Read More

  • Millennials, Narcissism, and Social Networking Sites

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recent research has uncovered that the Millennial Generation are more Narcissistic than previous generations (Orr et al., 2009). Narcissistic Personality Disorder is “identified by the presence of grandiose self-importance...” (Bender, 2012). Narcissists tend to see themselves as being intelligent, powerful, physically attractive, special and unique, and they expect special treatment from others while believing they owe nothing in return (McKinney, Kelly & Duran, 2012; Orr et al., 2009). Alongside this increase of Narcissistic behaviour, there has also been an increase in usage of social networking sites (SNSs) (Orr et al., 2009). SNSs such as Facebook and Twitter have been growing at an exponential rate, particularly Facebook, which is currently

    Read More

  • Understanding How Technology is Changing Relationships

    3023 Words  | 7 Pages

    Special, W.P., & Li-Barber, K.T. (2012). Self-disclosure and student satisfaction with Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), 624-630.

    Read More

  • Self-Esteem and Social Media

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/instagram_and_self_esteem_why_the_photo_sharing_network_is_even_more_depressing.html Facebook And Social Media Activity Reflects Self-Esteem, Study Finds. Medical Daily. Retrieved from http://www.medicaldaily.com/facebook-and-social-media-activity-reflects-self-esteem-study-finds-256832 Facebook Envy: How The Social Network Affects Our Self-Esteem. Facebook Envy: How The Social Network Affects Our SelfEsteem. Retrieved from http://www.wbur.org/2013/02/20/facebook-perfection.

    Read More

  • Facebook Effects in Socialization

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ellison, Nicole B., Charles Steinfield, and Cliff Lamp. “The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites.” Wiley Online Library. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 23 Aug. 2007. Web. 06 Nov. 2013. .

    Read More

  • The Problems of Facebook

    374 Words  | 1 Pages

    The popular site, Facebook.com, has amassed more than one billion registrants since it started in February 2004. It is another social networking site, just like MySpace.com and Xanga.com, which is common to High School and College students. But this is no ordinary site; people’s lives literally revolve around Facebook. I have a Facebook account and log in at least once a day. I personally believe that Facebook is a fun and interactive site. However, some students may not feel that same way because they have encountered some negative aspects, aside from Facebook’s legal problems.

    Read More

  • Social Media And Our Perception Of Others

    1525 Words  | 4 Pages

    These things have become so common that not having them almost makes it seem like there is something missing. Because of features such as these, it is incredibly easy to share every aspect of what we are reading, doing, eating and listening to with everyone in our social networks. While this has meant incredible advances in the way we interact with our world, it has also fundamentally changed the way our social relationships are created and sustained. Social medial led users to have false impression of others and changed our feelings. Because social media users tend to only show the most positive aspects of their lives, social media users have a false sense of reality when it comes to how they seem themselves, how others see them and how they see other people. “It is not difficult to say that social media effect our perception of others” (Goshgarian213).

    Read More

  • Social Media and its Impact

    1467 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marche, Stephen. “Is Facebook Making us Lonely? (Cover story)”: 8 (10727825) 309.4 (2012): 68. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Social Media Essay

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    Facebook is beneficial to one's social life because they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives, while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies because people are not directly communicating with each other. But some argue that Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. Users can upload pictures, update statuses, play games, get news, add people, like and share photos, videos, memes

    Read More

  • Positive And Negative Effects Of Facebook Essay

    1750 Words  | 4 Pages

    Facebook can keep you up to date on what is going on around you and around the world. Facebook, along with other social networking sites replace the normal face to face conversations and changes the way we interact with others. One common question that has always been asked when concerning social networking is, “Does it have an affect on one 's psychological well being?” There have been many studies that show that there are both positive and negative effects of Facebook. “Internet causes people to cut off from social interactions by communicating via a socially impoverished medium. The more individuals use FB, the less satisfied they feel about life (Chan 276).” The first study in this article is where they show the relationship between Facebook and how much people use it and how it correlates with their psychological well being. The second study talks about the good and the bad when it comes to Facebook. The third study talks about the empathetic social skills and how it effect those who use Facebook. Then goes on to describe what empathy means, which means the ability to share and understand people and their feelings. And empathy is a good a basis for for good social skills. It is very common for people to portray themselves as someone they are not on Facebook to appear more appealing to their “friends”. They put up

    Read More

More about Facebook Friends Portraying Perfect Lives

Open Document