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 The 52-year-old journalist for a London-based news agency wrote for
Spanish Vogue for six years. Naturally, many in her social-media
circles worked in the high-flying fashion industry. Whenever Bustelo
logged on to Facebook, she was confronted with an array of five-star
images: Luxury vacations, designer clothes, Michelin-starred
restaurants.
It was too much like Keeping Up With the Joneses in the digital age.
"Facebook is a big factory of envy," Bustelo says. "It's kind of
related to fashion magazines, in the overwhelming visual display of
lives, homes, clothes, and possessions."
She had no interest in spending herself into the poorhouse just to
keep up with the extravagant images in her news feed. So one day she
logged off the site for good.
That could be good news for her pocketbook, according to experts.
One study by academic researchers found that frequent Facebook users
tend to have higher levels of credit-card debt and lower credit
scores.
Why so? Social media can discourage self-control, says Andrew
Stephen, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh and
the study's co-author.
After all, envy is a natural reaction to photos of your contacts
vacationing in Mustique with their smiling kids frolicking on the
beach. Especially vulnerable are parents anxious to give their own
children the best life has to offer.
"If your friends are doing all these cool things and going on these
fun vacations, you might feel that to remain a part of that social
group, you have to participate in those things as well," Stephen
says.
Just look at all the spending sparked by social-media sites. Every
30 seconds Facebook generates a whopping $5,483 in sales, followed
by Pinterest with $4,504, according to New York City e-commerce
analytics firm Ever Merchant.
Pinterest in particular, as a visual and shopping-oriented platform,
seems to whet consumer appetites for pricey goods. The average
click-through purchase in 2012 was $179.36, more than double that on
Facebook, according to data crunched by Fast Company.
No wonder social media seems to loosen one's hold on the purse
strings. When the University of Pittsburgh's Stephen had survey
respondents participate in an online auction for an iPad, those who
had just been on Facebook bid higher than others who had been merely
browsing the Internet.
So how can you resist this deep human instinct to try to match, or
one-up, your friends' glittering social-media feeds?
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One tip: Remember that what you are seeing on Instagram or Facebook
or Pinterest is not a full and true representation of people's
lives.
"It's basically a highlight film," says Tonya Rapley, a
Brooklyn-based money coach and financial educator at
MyFabFinance.com. "Your friend may have been in Dubai this week and
Thailand last week, but you don't see the sacrifices that went into
those purchases, or the debt someone has gone into."
Take an occasional break with a social media fast, Rapley says.
"It might be for a day, or a week, or a month," Rapley says. "But it
lets me pull back and think, 'What am I doing here?' "
Life is not an experiential arms race. Having a more modest
social-media feed does not make you less of a person than someone
posting about a villa in St. Bart's.
"Look for other options," suggests Rapley. "For instance, you might
not be able to take a week long all-inclusive trip to the Dominican
Republic like some of your friends. But maybe you can work a weekend
in Miami into your budget."
Another tip: The University of Pittsburgh's Stephen suggests
maintaining relationships outside of social media. Calling,
e-mailing or going out to dinner with buddies gives a much fuller
picture of what's really going on in their lives.
As for Gabriela Bustelo, she has not given up social media
altogether. She remains on Twitter, for instance, which she does not
find to be such an orgy of conspicuous consumption. But she has zero
regrets about her social-media downsizing.
(Follow us @ReutersMoney or at http://www.reuters.com/finance/personal-finance
Editing by Beth Pinsker and Lauren Young)
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