“My Facebook friends have wonderful lives, and I am glad for them. They have the best boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife (“yeah, be jealous”, demands one young lady about the man in her life). Their sons and daughters win academic and sports awards and are the most thoughtful people on the planet. They enjoy relaxing/exciting/exotic vacations. They build huge houses and plant lovely gardens. They enjoy laughter and parties with friends and warm and happy holidays with families. Their grandbabies become more and more adorable with each passing week….They are “blessed”.”. How does one know when one has crossed the line between “sharing” with a hundred or two of one’s “closest friends” and boasting? (Washington Post).

Firstly, Epicurus would laugh uproarously about having even 100 real friends. Acquaintances yes, close friends, more dubious. The average size of a church congregation has for centuries been around 80 people. This is for a good reason – the average person can only really know about 80 people, and of these of maybe 20 to 30 might be called real, or close, friends. We are programmed for village life.

Secondly, Epicurus would be very sad to learn that Facebook, designed for genuine friends to keep in touch, is being used to incite envy and feelings of inadequacy among others. What is described is not only a twisting of the probable truth, but is cruel and, yes, unfriendly. I recently received a video along the lines, “see what a wonderful life we have”, but declined to enter into that competition. Making people jealous is one of the more disagreeable sides of human nature. Epicureans are sensitive to the feelings of others; they don’t set out to incite envy (even if they do in fact have wonderful lives!).