Facebook is often seen in a negative light. It's a time sink that gives nothing back, it provides the highlights of everyone else's lives, political arguments abound, advertising is everywhere, and it is overwhelmed at times with baby/cat pictures. Sometimes, people even pay real money to play facebook games. Beyond that, at times people become jealous because they see others doing that which they wish they were doing.
People often deal with the onslaught by deleting their facebook account, or taking a month long digital hiatus. Others seem unaffected.
I think facebook can be used positively; either as a means to boost your own mood and affirm ourselves, or as a means of building true friends networks, the emerge from the internet and become physical reality. I'm going to focus on the first right now, because the second seems fairly obvious; simply type "I'm bored, who wants to hang out" and see what happens, or create and plan a party/potluck/get-together online.
So how can we boost our moods and our self concept? My partner has done a lot of reading into research on happiness, and one of the interesting concepts he found was that if you see pictures of yourself happy often, they will improve your mood.
I personally want to tie this to the fact that I don't go out and do all those things I love to do as much as I wish I would. And that I get a teeny bit jealous when I see people's pictures of those same things that I enjoy doing.
So, to use facebook to positively boost my mood, I'm going to go out and do those fun things I keep forgetting to do, and then post pictures on facebook. People's comments tend to be positive, so that will serve as an instant mood boost, and as reinforcement of the desired behaviour.
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