Why Facebook Makes You Feel Bad About Yourself: Reading Practice with Questions

We log in to Facebook hoping to experience happiness through friendship and support from our social networks. "But skimming through photos of friends’ life successes can trigger feelings of envy, misery and loneliness as well, according to researchers from two German universities.".

To find out more, read the article at

http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/24/why-facebook-makes-you-feel-bad-about-yourself/#ixzz2KcwqTqWp .

Then try to answer the comprehension questions below. You can check your answers with the suggested answers at the bottom of the page.


Questions:

1. How is Facebook supposed to make us feel?

2. According to the researchers, how many people felt bad after looking at Facebook?

3. What effect can looking at Facebook without posting have?

4. What results may feeling envious when looking at Facebook have?

5. What differences can be seen in the way men and women present themselves on Facebook?

6. What are the two most common causes of frustration with Facebook?

7. Overall, do the positive effects of using Facebook seem to outweigh the drawbacks?



Vocabulary:

to skim (v.) - to look through quickly or superficially

envy (n.) - to want something that another person has

misery (n.) - great unhappiness

lousy (adj.) - bad, terrible

to scan (v.) - to look over quickly, sometimes when searching for information

frequenter (n.) - a person who frequents a place (visits a place often)

to post content - to share information online

common (adj.) - usual, frequent

an observation (n.) - something you notice or observe

to portray (v.) - to present, to show

to supersede - to overcome, be stronger than


Suggested answers:

1. happy, warm, loved, supported and important

2. one in three

3. more likelihood of feeling dissatisfied

4. people may use the site less or leave the site

5. men - more likely to post self-promotional content; women - more likely to stress physical attractiveness and sociability

6. a. users comparing themselves socially to friends b. “lack of attention” from fewer comments, likes and general feedback compared to friends

7. yes