Facebook exposure drives social comparison and envy on an unprecedented scale

Evidence

A 2011 study found that social media users exposed to pictures of “beautiful users” developed a more negative self-image than those who were shown less attractive profile pictures. Men who were shown profiles of high-career-status men judged their own pursuits as inadequate, compared to others who saw profiles of less successful men. By 2013, researchers found that Facebook use could predict negative shifts in both how their young subjects felt moment to moment as well as their overall life satisfaction. That year, German researchers found that the “astounding… wealth of social information” presented on Facebook produces “a basis for social comparison and envy on an unprecedented scale.” Their work demonstrated that “passive following” on Facebook exacerbates feelings of envy and decreases life satisfaction. More than 20 percent of all recent experiences of envy reported by the students in the research study had been triggered by Facebook exposure. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1476

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader surveillance-capitalism thesis in earlier chapters that behavioral data collection manufactures psychological vulnerabilities for targeting. — connects to: Social media metrics convert audience size into a comparable measure of personal status — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 245; Facebook’s vision subordinates whole societies, not just users, to its predictive embrace — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1279; Social comparison is the dominant psychological process in the Facebook experience. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1470 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Viewing others’ highlight reels on Facebook measurably degraded users’ mood and sense of meaning #expands (0.95) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1012
• Social media’s engineered feedback loops convert normal social comparison into compulsive anxiety #expands (0.90) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1485
• Active Facebook interaction correlates measurably with diminished mental health #corroborates (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1480
• Social media turned attention capture into mutual self-display at unprecedented scale #qualifies (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1062