Post-Study

Social Networking study reported on Yahoo
Another study reported on Slate.com

Another link that the first study into social networking found was that the more time you spent social networking more likely you think the world is not fair. Whether spending time on Facebook leads to the cognition of unfairness can't be answered by the study, because correlation analysis doesn't imply causation. It could be the other way around: thinking the world is unfair leads people to spend more time on Facebook. Or, there could be a third factor which influences both.

No matter what the causation is, the connection is still there. People are spending time on social network sites and thinking, compared to less frequent users, that others are happier and the world is more unfair. The implications are a bit unsettling for a world which is moving more and more into the cyberworld. The view of "openness" which Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, envisions may actually make it harder for people to actually connect and share what's truly important.

Though it's not simply a matter of Facebook. It's also Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, LinkedIn, and even more sites. The barrage of other people's lives might make it difficult for us to live our own.

Somewhere beyond the easy calls of people need to grow up and learn some perspective lies insight which will allow us to move forward. We can now peek at the lives of John Jones and Sally Smith. We need to live with the consequences of that view in a healthy manner. But how?