Our Facebook personas can veer from who we authentically are and the actual reality of our personal lives. On the positive side, Facebook connects people who have once shared an experience. You can become more involved in the lives of your long-distance cousin and her young family or easily stay in touch with an old friend. On the negative side, Facebook is a space where people want to display the best of themselves and their lives, which can arouse feelings of envy, loneliness and inadequacy within outsiders. As you nonchalantly scroll through your Facebook newsfeed, photos of your friend’s birthday party pop up. As you click through fun pictures of friends dancing at festive parties full of lavish birthday decorations, your heart sinks — because you weren’t invited.

Social Self-Sabotage

TIME Magazine’s Heartland reports that scientists from two German universities concluded that after studying 600 Facebook users, “one in three felt worse after visiting the site — especially if they viewed vacation photos.” Researchers discovered that users who didn’t post their own content were also more likely to feel discontent. It seems to be like emotional self-sabotage when people have negative experiences by logging onto Facebook, yet continue to do so.

In addition to feelings of social exclusion, you may subconsciously make comparisons to yourself with other people as you are subjected to posts and photos. Drawing comparisons can cause insecurities and make you question yourself. Feelings of loneliness and self-pity can surface just by seeing a simple Facebook status that changes from “single” to “into a relationship.” Perhaps you read a status about an old friend getting a job promotion, and suddenly you’re comparing your professional worth to someone whom you probably haven’t talked to in years. Commonly, young people also internally respond to engagements, wedding photos and pregnancy announcements with negative feelings and virtual, societal pressure to move on to that next step in life. Just as unhealthily, Facebook serves as a tool for many to be passive aggressive and indirectly spiteful. To be on the receiving end of a message meant to hurtfully get your attention can feel like a dagger in the chest.

Facebook is Subjective

According to Reuters, Institute Information Systems at Berlin’s Humboldt University research expert, Hanna Krasnova, said based on observations on negative social networking experiences, “people will then leave Facebook or at least reduce their use of the site.”

People experience anger, resentment, stress and jealousy over all types of Facebook timeline activities such as:

• Vacation photos
• Number of birthday wishes
• Number of “likes” and comments on postings
• Family happiness
• Physical attractiveness
• Work accomplishments

If Facebook feels like a toxic digital environment that personally affects you, eliminate those negative feelings by taking control of your own behavior. Deactivate your account, visit the site less often or make an effort to not internalize specific types of content that creates unhealthy emotions. Users who use Facebook as a platform for self-promotion are most likely to share content on Facebook that will “portray themselves in a better light.” In that case, photos and posts can be like judging a book by its cover. Things aren’t always as they seem.

After the profile and then Timeline, Facebook has announced its latest innovation: Graph Search, a project born way back in early 2011, represents the third major change which we experience Facebook’s version of the web. We knew this was bound to happen: since it started, the social network has lacked a sturdy search function, a way to take full advantage of Social Graph.

Remember that hot chick you met at the hotel party who makes pottery and lives in Manhattan? Now with Facebook’s coveted Graph Search, users can search for Friday night dates, music recommendations or job opportunities from personal network(s). Some say Google should be worried. Others aren’t as impressed with these search functions. The tool is still in beta, but there’s no shortage of opinions on how this social search can be used and whether it will catch on.

How Does It Work?

Facebook’s search tool is based on two parts. The first is a natural-language processor and the second is an internal-retrieval tool. And, according to Graph Search developer Lars Rasmussen, one of the key components to launching Graph Search out of beta will be the ability to index all of the posts and comments people have shared on Facebook.

Facebook has recently launched a new platform called Facebook Exchange or FBX. FBX is a new way of purchasing Facebook ads through real-time bidding. FBX enhances Facebook to serve more relevant ads through cookie-based data that advertisers own, targeting through Demand Side Platform(DSP) to reach their audience. Advertisers and agencies now gain efficiencies by aligning with their existing buying methods through the real-time bidding industry-standard mechanism. So how does FBX actually work? FBX allows approved third party platforms to place retargeting ads on Facebook after a user visits an external websites. When a user visits a site that has hired one of Facebook’s partner platforms (DSPs), a cookie will be stored on that user’s browser when that user reaches the point where it shows purchase intent. If a user does not complete any transaction, the DSP will be able to bid on retargeting ads that appear in the right-hand column of Facebook when the user returns back to the social network. The DSP with the highest bids get their highly-targeted ads shown to the user. But some users just don’t like being targeted. So, if a user don’t like the ad and closes it out, they will be shown a link to the DSP where they can opt out of future FBX ads. Here are some of the Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) that offer software or managed services for Facebook Exchange:

Have you ever gotten immersed in a game on Facebook and then been left in the cold because the people you play with simply aren’t as committed to the game as you are? For this reason, among others, Facebook is working to improve the gaming experience for users.

Groups

The groups feature has been a part of the Facebook infrastructure for years. The decision to harness it and adapt it to improve gaming via Facebook was announced on the Facebook developer blog in mid-November. Developer Shireesh Asthana posted the update which let developers know that “apps and games can now create and manage Groups…to help people connect and share their experiences.” Previously, only users could create groups around their games.

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerburg was quoted by technology blog Techcrunch.com as saying “Gaming on Facebook isn’t doing as well as I’d like.” The article, published in late October, noted that the gaming portion of Facebook doesn’t translate well to the mobile platform. Feature and smartphone users have a tendency to play their online games via download, in a dedicated application rather than an extension of the Facebook application.

The newly launched BlackBerry 7 OS has been making quite a splash in the consumer world. Whether it is on Facebook, in the workplace or at the park, cell phone users around the world are abuzz with BlackBerry 7 OS’s abundance of all-new features and capabilities. The smartphones that have been made to include this system certainly live up to and exceed quality standards, paving the way for a whole new generation of BlackBerry models in the years to come.

Primary Features

The Documents To Go® Premium application is an ideal travel companion for the tech savvy businessperson. It allows users to save, retrieve, edit and build new document files quickly and efficiently. This feature is accessible through the Microsoft PowerPoint®, Microsoft Word® and Microsoft Excel® programs.

Another application worth mentioning is the BlackBerry Messenger 6 program. This unique tool enables the user to network your business and emphasize social connectivity amongst peers. Some of the program’s main highlights include the ability to integrate reinforced collaboration with numerous third-party applications and the sharing of such information as voice notes, files, location and more.