Facebook Makes Us :( Says Author

"Knowing that all my Facebook friends live a more exciting & fulfilled life than me makes me :(..."

Social media juggernaut Facebook has completely changed the way people all around the world communicate with one another, but the change isn't all good, claims author Daniel Gulati, who blogs for the Harvard Business Review.

Gulati asserts that while recent, controversial changes to Facebook are geared toward making members share more information about their daily lives, this is actually causing people to feel more depressed about their own lives by making everyone else's lives seem more interesting and happy! “Facebook is bringing down a lot of people’s daily sense of well-being," says Gulati.

The author claims that Facebook is leading to a loss of productivity in the work environment, with millions updating their status while on the clock. It can also negatively impact close relationships, while inspiring jealousy and bitterness.

“Meeting up in person, you get a much richer connection versus a video chat or a text-based chat.  It’s cannibalizing the offline interaction. That’s what’s worrying to me — the future prospect of Facebook conversations and video calls as opposed to meeting up at the local coffee shop.” Although Gulati doesn't advocate deleting your Facebook profile, he does suggest limiting the amount of time you spend on the site by selecting one day a week to avoid visiting the social media site completely. He also suggests deleting Facebook applications from mobile devices to avoid the constant temptation of checking the site, as well as pruning your list of friends of people with whom you rarely have any contact.