Friday, January 20, 2012

Facebook Makes You Unhappy? Maybe this explains the Occupy Movement

Well I guess seeing other smiling and happy and doing things that are "cooler" than their mundane crap is affecting some Facebook users.

"Those who have used Facebook longer agreed more that others were happier, and agreed less that life is fair, and those spending more time on Facebook each week agreed more that others were happier and had better lives," wrote Chou and Edge. "Furthermore, those that included more people whom they did not personally know as their Facebook "friends" agreed more that others had better lives."

I wonder is some of the Occupy protestors are bothered by the "life is less fair" part of the Facebook experience. I mean most of them are 20-somethings who are heavily into Facebook and they see that everyone else is getting bailed out and getting bonuses and it "isn't fair" in their minds.

Perhaps Facebook is creating the myth in their mind. Its like that scene from Trading Places where Dan Aykroyd is standing in the rain outside of the restaurant watching all of his rich ex-friends eating. They see the banksters like they see their Facebook friends with perceived better lives than them and it makes them angry and they protest. The problem is what are they protesting against? Do they want to break the window and come into the restaurant? Or do they just want to steal the food from the patrons?

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