Over 500 million people use Facebook on a daily basis. An article in The Wall Street Journal referred to a study about Facebook that was published last year by the journal “Plos One,” led by researchers at the University of Michigan.
According to the study, the more that we use Facebook, the less satisfied we are with our lives.
The article also pointed to another study last year that included over 600 Facebook users. The researchers from Germany claimed they witnessed the “rampant nature of envy” on social networking websites. (WSJ, April 26, 2014)
I guess that was only to be expected. You know how it goes. We read about someone’s engagement. Or their new car. Somebody’s workplace promotion. European vacation. Baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf heroics. Their kid got all A’s in school. We are constantly reading the updates with all the good things happening to our friends and acquaintances. The result? Sometimes it is envy.
While most of us use Facebook, and it certainly has much to offer, we need to be wary of the dangers of envy that seem to be inherent in its usage, because envy sure has a way of finding us. And the results are never good.
Shakespeare said it well: "O, beware, my lord of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds upon." (Othello, Act iii, sc. 3)
Scripture lays it on the line, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” (Proverbs 14:30)