Facebookland: Where Everything is Perfect

I have thought about this for a while and the more I look at it and examine it I know that it has to be true.  In Facebookland you can make and shape your life in any way that you please.  Are you a full time feces inspector at a nursing home?  Not in Facebookland, you are a doctor working on a medicine that cures AIDS and cancer at the same time.  Did you not finish high school?  Not in Facebookland, you graduated Magna Cum-Laude at Harvard with a double major in Corporate Law and Advanced Physics.  Do you live with your mother in a single bedroom trailer and live off of cat food and Natural Light?  Of course not, in Facebookland you live in a high rise condominium on the beach in Miami with your husband the CEO of Microsoft. 
On Facebook and any other social media site you can make your life whatever you want it to be.  You show people only what you want them to see.  You can plaster your profile with fabulous pictures of yourself surrounded by beautiful people in exotic locales riding on jet skis and swimming with dolphins (because of Photoshop).  When Facebook asks for you education information, you can pick from any of the vast list of schools available.  Who is going to check?  Hell, just for kicks I put down that I graduated from Harvard and made up a degree in some bogus field that I am pretty sure doesn't exist.  Has anyone ever heard of Biodynamic Metatechnological Anterior Reverse Anthropolbiolist?  Of course not, but who would question it?  You can make it appear that you are married to the most fabulous, successful, beautiful/handsome person in the world that wakes you up each morning with a shower of $100 bills and passionate lovemaking. 

I know that a lot of this is hyperbole but in some cases I don't feel that I am that far off.  Some people do these things just for the sake of humor and that is fine (because I'm pretty sure everyone knows that I don't live in Hell, Norway and I didn't graduate from Harvard).  I do worry about some people though because I think that they can get lost in their own b.s.  There was a recent study conducted by the American Association of Pediatrics, they found that depression can be triggered not only in teens but in adults when they see nothing but fabulous times being had by their "friends" on social media.  At first I thought that the study was a bunch of crap stirred up to make a news story on a slow day, but then I started to think and examine how it could be possible.  It is the stuff like I talked about above that can drive other people nuts.  If you are lonely, bored, or have nothing going on in your life and you are constantly bombarded with the greatness of other peoples' lives then I could see where some envy could develop.  I have even been guilty a time or two.  When I was layed up in the hospital for a month, I would get on Facebook and see all my friends going to bars or the beach and think, "Dammit, that sounds better than this."  But I think the thing to remember is this:  No one's life is perfect, unless you physically see or talk to these people on a regular basis you are only seeing and hearing what they want you to see and hear. 

I am not saying that everyone lies on social media, as a matter of fact a lot of people use it to air out their problems in life to get advice and support from their friends.  I have done it many times.  It can be extremely therapeautic and helpful to hear words of encouragement from people.  I talk to people on here everyday exchanging ideas, encouragement, congratulations, and debates.  I like to hear honesty from people.  Don't bullshit me about your life or your beliefs.  Don't brag about the "awesomeness of you" that doesn't really exist.  If I wanted to read about a fake fairytale world filled with magical spouses showering you with piles of money and multiple orgasms, I will go and read a romance novel.