Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users' Life Satisfaction?

This study makes a lot of sense and I totally agree on its findings.

But: the more I think about it I come to the conclusion that Facebook -- still something depressing if you use too often -- became a key driver for all my accomplishments the last years.

The envy the study describes is nothing new, we had these kind of feelings always towards our peer group and FB just increased and accelerated those feelings to the max. But nonetheless those feelings of inferiority pushes one to new limits, drives people to be more active (in the long-run) because they want to be on par to their peer group's top achievers.

"According to our findings, passive following triggers invidious emotions, with users mainly envying happiness of others, the way others spend their vacations; and socialize."

"Finally, our results offer an explanation to the ever increasing wave of selfpresentation and narcissism behavior witnessed on social networks – a phenomenon we refer to as the self-promotion - envy spiral."