It turns out having 923 friends isn't necessarily a recipe for happiness.
In an article written for the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, then-Ph.D. student Alex Jordan of Stanford University found that college students evaluate their moods based on their perception of their friends' moods. Many found themselves underestimating the troubles of others and thus feeling like their lives were inadequate.
Jordan told Slate he got the idea from his friends' reactions to the attractive photos, accomplished bios and chipper status updates of others on Facebook.
"They were convinced that everyone else was leading a perfect life," Jordan told Slate.
According to Digital Buzz Blog, one in every 13 people on earth use Facebook, with 72 percent of all U.S. internet users on the network; 70 percent of the entire user base is located outside of the U.S.
Religious blogger Tim Challies points out that trying to make life seem perfect on the social network leads to a false sense of reality.
"Facebook is all about making life seem joyful — we 'like' one another’s happy status updates, not the sad ones; we post photos of our parties, not our funerals; we use it to celebrate births and marriages and new relationships, not to mourn deaths or remember break-ups," Challies writes. "Facebook is meant to be a happy place for happy people. But it doesn’t seem to work out so well. We all think everyone else is happy, but we don’t feel the joy."
The idea of misery wanting company has also been shown in a recent Journal of Family Psychology study. According to the study, men like it when women let them know when they're happy, but women, on the other hand, like seeing their mate angry, sad or frustrated.
Clinical Psychologist Shiri Cohen of Massachusetts General Hospital told the journal the findings are consistent with previous research.
"The women tend to want to engage around conflict," Cohen said. "They're deriving more satisfaction when they see that their partner is upset."
However, Cohen said women aren't just seeking their mates' misery; rather, when men share negative feelings with their partner it's a sign to women of their emotional investment.
"That's telling her something about his availability to engage in the conflict," Cohen said.