The Dark Side of Social Media, Jealousy

We know Facebook stalking is just a fact of life these days, but is this social media espionage actually bad for you? Research published by CyberPsychology and Behaviors says yes.  If you have a tendency to be jealous, monitoring your lover or ex-lover on Facebook can make you more so.

The case looked at the jealousy levels of individuals with regards to relationships (current and past), further adding that nearly 75% of people added their exes to their social network. As time spent on Facebook increased, so did feelings of jealousy. Discovery Health did a great piece on why Facebook and social media has such an ability to cause these feelings. They came down to these five reasons:

1. Facebook is addicting. Yeah, it is actually psychologically addicting and the more time you spend on it, the more jealous you are likely to become about certain situations.

2. It’s Too Easy to Reconnect with Exes. This is bad for two reasons, it can make current significant others jealous because they have to see the interaction with the exes, and because constant access to the profile and updates of an ex usually results in seeing things you don’t want to see.

3. Facebook Over Informs. With all that information pouring out your social network, that person is bound to come up and every time, we assume the worst. A harmless joke could taken out of context and suspicions or hunches can grow into full-blown fits of jealousy and rage at the site of a tagged photo, cryptic status, or wall post.

4. It Appeals to Women. Women are not more jealous, but are more likely to be made jealous by Facebook because of the increased amount of time spent on it.

5. Its Probably You. Despite that fact that its pretty clear Facebook doesn’t make these situations easy, it won’t make you a jealous person. The study showed clearly that those individuals more inclined to be jealous were the ones most affected by their time on Facebook. So, if you are a jealous person, Facebook will make it worse.

Whether you are a jealous person or not though, its pretty clear that getting too much information that sometimes lacks context, can make it harder to trust our current flames or get over our old ones. But hey, at least Facebook finally fixed the problem with their photo formula that forced you to see pictures of people you used to be in relationships with.

What do you think? Ever had a break-up or relationship made more difficult by that mini-feed and constant flow of new photos? Tell us about a time Facebook made you jealous, or didn’t, and why. We’d love some juicy stories.