We all have those friends who gush over their loving relationships on Facebook. Before you roll eyes or start clicking through their adorable photos in jealousy, the findings of a new study say that these relationships aren't really what they seem.
Published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that insecure, anxious people were more likely to brag about their relationships on Facebook. On the days "when people felt more insecure about their partner's feelings, they tended to make their relationships visible."
Facebook allows people to portray a certain image of themselves, and sometimes this differs from reality. "People can choose what image of themselves to convey on Facebook, so it's intriguing that people seem to emphasize their relationships in that image when they're feeling insecure about them," says Lydia Emery, one of the study's authors and graduate student in the Ph.D. program at Northwestern University in Illinois.
Previous studies have found that people become jealous when looking at images of people happy and having fun on social media. In fact, according to a recent survey, 34 percent of Americans would consider blocking or unfollowing friends that post too many holiday photos on Facebook. Presumably, this act of unfollowing is rooted in FOMO like symptoms or jealousy.
So the next time you see your friend in the arms of their significant other, remember that when it comes to the Internet, there is always a chance that things aren't really what they seem. And if that still isn't enough for you, there are plenty of Chrome extensions that will erase all the annoying things about the Internet for you.
