'Facebook Envy' Can Make You Dissatisfied With Life

Do you ever get jealous that your Facebook friends are out living more exciting, successful lives than you? You're not alone.

According to a new study out of Germany, viewing friends' vacations, love lives, and work successes play out on Facebook can cause negative feelings and actually make people less satisfied with their own lives. The study of nearly 600 Facebook users, conducted by researchers at Berlin's Humboldt University and Darmstadt's Technical University, found that more than a third of respondents were frustrated and envious after visiting the social network.

Those who browsed Facebook without engaging in any active conversations were most negatively affected, the study found. In addition, viewing friends' vacation photos posted to the social network was the biggest cause of resentment.

"Access to copious positive news and the profiles of seemingly successful 'friends' fosters social comparison that can readily provoke envy," project manager Hanna Krasnova, who is a postdoctoral researcher at Humboldt University, said in a statement. "By and large, online social networks allow users unprecedented access to information … that would be much more difficult to obtain offline."

Feelings of envy can "frequently" lead users to embellish their Facebook profile and brag about recent successes to portray themselves in a better light. This, in turn, leads to jealousy among other users, a phenomenon the researchers behind the study termed "envy spiral."

The researchers also found that a negative link exists between Facebook envy and users' general life satisfaction. Moreover, passive use of Facebook tends to heighten the emotions that adversely affect life satisfaction.

"Considering the fact that Facebook use is a worldwide phenomenon and envy is a universal feeling, a lot of people are subject to these painful consequences," Coauthor Helena Wenninger from Darmstadt's Technical University, said in a statement.

Recently, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia Business School found that the self-esteem boost some people receive from Facebook activity could lead to reckless behavior online and off.

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