Social media is a malignant addiction; one that presents itself as the solution to the problem it causes, like gambling. You use social media more and more to feel like you are important and popular, or to at least create a grandiose self-portrait of your own maximum potential realized in order to make yourself seem more appealing to other people. Sometimes out of longing, sometimes out of spite... we put our best foot forward. The problem is, everybody else does the same. You see all these great interesting things everyone else is doing, and it makes you reflect on your own life. When you get a little older, you start to see other people making great strides in their careers after college, which also can make you feel inadequate.
Most people never realize it, but I became aware of these issues when I was doing qualitative consumer research for an advertising campaign for an ISP. I read journal after journal, and more importantly, interviewed and observed a ton of people. They all said the same thing, without realizing they were saying it "I use Facebook to make myself appear better than I actually am, under the guise that I'm sharing my life story with friends who assuredly will be vicariously happy for me."
Almost everybody has Facebook friends for whom they cannot feel vicariously happy; people whose success does not feel like your own success. I suggest users who have such people on their Facebook remove them. But then, you'd have probably 6 people on your Facebook, and you could likely contact them through other more intimate means.
