My Life Is Horrible… By Social Media Standards

“Honey, look what the Johnsons are doing! They are vacationing again. They have so much fun! Why don’t we ever do these things?”

Sound familiar?

Maybe you have heard this, or even said this to your partner in response to someone’s social media post?

If we are to believe what we see on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or even Google+, then it is clear that most people we know are having AMAZING lives, right?

We see vacation posts, proclamations of undying love and adorable children pictured everywhere. While all of these things can be fascinating as you are keeping up with long lost friends, ultimately it can leave you feeling as though you are falling short on many fronts. This is especially true when it comes to relationships.

What We See

Facebook and the other social media platforms are filled with stories of romantic gestures, anniversary tributes to long-lived relationships, and declarations of feeling blessed for the amazing lives being lived. We see beautiful selfies of friends that look like they haven’t aged a day, and couples that are at yet another amazing event. It appears that most people, especially couples, are living lives full of nothing but happiness, love, and rewarding events and experiences.

What We Feel

Recently someone told me they were looking at the many postings of a couple that used to be close friends of theirs and found themselves feeling a bit jealous. It seemed by the posts that this couple vacations ALL the time, and is still insanely in love. Her stream was full of kissy-faced selfies proclaiming, “this man! LOVE him,” while his posts showed cute poses of his wife as he declares himself, “the luckiest man alive.” Before long this person was feeling inadequate in their own relationship. They said, “looking at this it would seem that my relationship doesn’t even register on the happiness meter.”

It is not uncommon for these types of posts to leave us with the feeling that we don’t measure up. Feeling like somehow we have failed to meet certain benchmarks along the way, or like our life is drudgery compared to others is an unfortunate result of being too involved in social media.

Facebook Hires Thousands To Review Posts After Rash Of Live-Streamed Violence

Facebook plans to expand its community operations team by adding 3,000 people as part of a growing effort to screen and combat harmful content on the social network.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement on his Facebook page Wednesday, pledging that the new hires will help the company “get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation.”

Zuckerberg also said the company will simplify the process for users flagging questionable content for review, and will make it easier for employees to contact law enforcement when necessary.

The additional 3,000 screeners represent a near doubling of the company’s community operations team, currently 4,500 strong.

Moderators have struggled to stamp out horrific videos before they go viral in real time. Last month, a 20-year-old man in Thailand killed his infant daughter and streamed the death on Facebook Live. Days before that, a 37-year-old man in Cleveland uploaded a video of him shooting and killing another man on Easter Sunday. That video was live on Facebook for around two hours before moderators took it down.

20 Reasons Why I Don’t Like Your Instagram Post

1. I don’t like it because you don’t follow me back.

2. I don’t like it because you don’t like my posts.

3. I don’t like it because it doesn’t have 11 likes yet.

4. I don’t like it because I don’t want you to know that I’m creeping on your shit at 4 a.m.

5. I don’t like it because I don’t want you to know that I’m spending my Friday night on Instagram.

6. I don’t like it because your humble brag isn’t humble.

7. I don’t like it because your post is 100-percent self-serving.

8. I don’t like it because I’m jealous of your body.

9. I don’t like it because bae wouldn’t like it if I did.

10. I don’t like it because it’s a happy birthday post for someone I don’t know.

11. I don’t like it because I follow too many NYC food blogs to even notice it.

12. I don’t like it because I’m driving and that’s how people get killed.

13. I don’t like it because I can’t double tap the screen without putting down my pizza.

14. I don’t like it because we slept together a few weeks back. Better to lay low for now.

15. I don’t like it because I liked your last 3 posts and now I’ve got to play hard to get.