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Comment by bradlys | Hacker News Reader

It sounds like a lot of people feel like they're missing out. This could be because so many on social media are trying to imitate the image of that lifefaker website that came up here recently. It's no surprise that the 18-22 age group feels the worst. They're the ones cultivating this fake life image the most!

If you're connected to 500 people and each person has 2-3 days a year that are "lifefaker" worthy... then it's pretty obvious how you'd feel left out. Each day you'll see 5 amazing posts that make you feel like you're living a terrible life. This is pretty standard stuff. It's standard by young people to not share sad things or things that won't fetch a lot of likes or envy. It's common to post things that aren't even happening now or recently but to share moments from the past that were great even if your life is pretty crap at the moment. It's about creating the image that your life is fantastic even if it really isn't.

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Even worse than this, people start optimizing their life to be lifefaker worthy.

My wife and I bought a drone for, honestly, just this purpose, and as has been repeatedly mentioned, more and more restaurants plate their food to look good photo'd and posted online.

The local cherry blossom season is over crowded with people taking pictures, some of them bring out DSLRs just for the occasion. There is a local tulip festival that has changed over the years from admiring nature to being a great photo op.

The world is becoming optimizing for photo ops, it is now pretty easy to get in more than 2-3 photo-perfect days a year.

Seattle?

Correct! :)

There is only about 4 photo appropriate months around here, but getting a world class photo on any summer day is pretty much child's play.

I don't think this is it at all. I never read facebook/twitter posts (I just use FB for the messenger), and I know I'm not missing out. In my late 20s I took jobs in the South Pacific and spent a year backpacking through Asia/Europe. I've also done a 5 month drive across the US.

I've literally done the world travel thing (and loved it) but I still often feel lonely. Part of that is moving and starting in new cities a lot, but part of it is just difficultly in finding a partner. Within two years of being in a city I usually have a strong core group of friends, but romantic partners are much harder to establish (distinguishing between friendship loneliness vs romantic loneliness).

By your argument, maybe I'm part of the problem. :-P I only use social media to promote my own blog with details about travels or my photography, so maybe I make people feel left out. But then again, I still feel lonely myself.

I think your statement tries to narrow down something that's a much more complicated issue. And what you said may be true for some people experience loneliness, but not all for sure.

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