--- title: Why Facebook Makes You Feel Miserable description: No surprise — those Facebook photos of your friends on vacation or celebrating a birthday party can make you feel lousy. 7136817 canonical: https://time.com/archive/7136817/why-facebook-makes-you-feel-bad-about-yourself/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-01-24T13:00:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T10:08:22.987Z article:section: Health og:title: Why Facebook Makes You Feel Miserable og:description: No surprise — those Facebook photos of your friends on vacation or celebrating a birthday party can make you feel lousy. 7136817 og:url: https://time.com/archive/7136817/why-facebook-makes-you-feel-bad-about-yourself/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt015e1dc7c5368191/698a92f418689267ad6ce32c/hl-facebook-0128.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1499 og:image:height: 843 og:image:alt: Facebook Expected To File For IPO og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Facebook Makes You Feel Miserable twitter:description: No surprise — those Facebook photos of your friends on vacation or celebrating a birthday party can make you feel lousy. 7136817 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt015e1dc7c5368191/698a92f418689267ad6ce32c/hl-facebook-0128.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Why Facebook Makes You Feel Bad About Yourself > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=2c8d881d-6c7c-4542-936f-b8316b3d8f91&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jan 24, 2013 1:00 PM UTC  MENLO PARK, CA - FEBRUARY 01: A sign with the "like" symbol stands in front of the Facebook headquarters on February 1, 2012 in Menlo Park, California. Facebook is expected to file for its first initial public offering today seeking to raise at least $5 billion. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) MENLO PARK, CA - FEBRUARY 01: A sign with the "like" symbol stands in front of the Facebook headquarters on February 1, 2012 in Menlo Park, California. Facebook is expected to file for its first initial public offering today seeking to raise at least $5 billion. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Getty Images—2012 Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jan 24, 2013 1:00 PM UTC No surprise — those Facebook photos of your friends on vacation or celebrating a birthday party can make you feel lousy. more Facebook is supposed to envelope us in the warm embrace of our social network, and scanning friends’ pages is supposed to make us feel loved, supported and important (at least in the lives of those we like). But skimming through photos of friends’ life successes can trigger feelings of envy, misery and loneliness as well, according to researchers from two German universities. The scientists studied 600 people who logged time on the social network and discovered that one in three felt worse after visiting the site—especially if they viewed vacation photos. Facebook frequenters who spent time on the site without posting their own content were also more likely to feel dissatisfied. (**MORE:** [Why You’re More Likely to Remember A Facebook Status Than a Face](http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/17/why-youre-more-likely-to-remember-a-facebook-status-than-a-face/)) “We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry,” study author Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Berlin’s Humboldt University [told Reuters](http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/01/22/us-facebook-envy-idUKBRE90L0N220130122). “From our observations some of these people will then leave Facebook or at least reduce their use of the site.” The most common cause of Facebook frustration came from users comparing themselves socially to their peers, while the second most common source of dissatisfaction was “lack of attention” from having fewer comments, likes and general feedback compared to friends. The study authors note that both men and women feel pressure to portray themselves in the best light to their Facebook friends, but men are more likely to post more self-promotional content in their “About Me” and “Notes” sections than women, although women are more likely to stress their physical attractiveness and sociability. (**MORE:** [Who Wields The Most Influence On Facebook?](http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/22/who-wields-the-most-influence-on-facebook/)) The authors [write](http://warhol.wiwi.hu-berlin.de/~hkrasnova/Ongoing%5FResearch%5Ffiles/WI%202013%20Final%20Submission%20Krasnova.pdf) \[PDF\]: --- > “” --- So far, it seems that the positive effects of being socially connected supersede the negative consequences of feeling inferior or left out by your circle of friends. But the authors suggest that if the hurtful feelings grow, Facebook and other social media may no longer be a fun way to stay connected with friends, but could become just another source of stress for people. The research will be presented at an information system conference in Germany in February, called the _11th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik_. **MORE:** [Pediatricians Should Discuss ‘Facebook Depression’ with Kids](http://healthland.time.com/2011/03/28/pediatricians-should-discuss-facebook-use-with-kids/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7136817/why-facebook-makes-you-feel-bad-about-yourself/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7136817/why-facebook-makes-you-feel-bad-about-yourself/"},"headline":"Why Facebook Makes You Feel Bad About Yourself","datePublished":"2013-01-24T13:00:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T10:08:22.987Z","description":"No surprise — those Facebook photos of your friends on vacation or celebrating a birthday party can make you feel lousy. 7136817","url":"https://time.com/archive/7136817/why-facebook-makes-you-feel-bad-about-yourself/","keywords":["facebook","Friends"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt015e1dc7c5368191/698a92f418689267ad6ce32c/hl-facebook-0128.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt015e1dc7c5368191/698a92f418689267ad6ce32c/hl-facebook-0128.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Facebook Expected To File For IPO","caption":"Facebook Expected To File For IPO","creditText":"Getty Images—2012 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7136817/why-facebook-makes-you-feel-bad-about-yourself/","name":"Why Facebook Makes You Feel Bad About Yourself"}}]}] ```