[carsongross]

IMO, this is more a case of social media bringing deeper problems to the surface than social media being the actual cause.

Absolutely not. Facebook is engineered to be addictive, and happiness is based to a very large extent on perceived relative position in a social hierarchy.

Facebook is more like a horribly insidious version of advertising than food or alcohol.

[colmvp]

Indeed. I think we're not giving enough credit for how Facebook is designed.

People largely only post things that are happy, such as birth of a newborn baby, smiling kids, winning awards, having fun on vacation, while cropping out the sad or dull moments.

Those posts garner a lot of likes. And then those rise up in importance on feeds.

It's not uncommon to feel a bit envious of seeing these. So then we eventually we post something of comparable significance. Perhaps a new house. Or an achievement of our own like releasing a first version of something. Or a vacation we've scheduled.

It's creates a weird cycle detached from reality. I'm not depressed but I can't honestly say the experience doesn't affect me.

[drzaiusapelord]

>Those posts garner a lot of likes.

Except they don't. I see political garbage like outrage pieces from some liberal rag or some conservative website garnering all the votes. Everyone gets outraged, argumentative, etc. Facebook is like an eternal thanksgiving dinner with your overly political uncle.

The baby photos, vacation photos, etc are the ignored content here.

[andrewflnr]

There's that, too, but the happy fluff is definitely there in some circles, if not yours.

[spyspy]

Every monetized product is designed to be addictive.

[carsongross]

The Silicon Valley RDF has severely warped your brain.