Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

I have a friend who never posts anything on his Weibo and WeChat account. In his 30s, he is neither an anti-tech freak nor does he lack interest in socializing. He is just fond of observing what other people update while keeping his own life mysterious. One day I asked about what he discovered lately.

"I found all my friends' lives look wonderful and perfect," he said. They relax in the suburbs on weekends and travel abroad on holidays. They keep posting photos of delicate dishes and fancy restaurants. If they cook at home, they can't wait to exhibit their homemade dinners and cute baked goods.  

I was reminded of an old classmate from my university days, Ms A. Ms A, who now works at a government agency, got married to a man working for a State-owned company five years ago. Most of her WeChat posts describe what she cooks and what the couple eats every day. We learn that her best dish is hongshaorou (braised pork in brown sauce), and that she made a chocolate cake for her husband's birthday. When they traveled to Tokyo for a marriage anniversary, they became obsessed with Japanese noodles. However, the latest sad news I heard was that she was actually in a marriage crisis and might get divorced soon. 

Ms A is not the only one who pretends that her life is perfect on the Internet. A survey by a UK-based social networking company found that more than 25 percent of women fib on social networking media at least once a month with an aim to make their life look more exciting, according to a report in The Telegraph.

The researchers also said that women tend to lie on the social networking websites because of worry "their lives would seem 'boring', jealousy at seeing other people's more exciting posts and wanting to impress their friends and acquaintances."

I remembered what my father once told me: we should look down on people who fulfill their vanity by comparing their food and clothes with others. But the popularity of social media has changed this old idea. Weibo and WeChat become the ideal platform on which we rebuild our life to appear as we desire it to be. Food is a constant theme that can attract all people regardless of gender, age and nationality.

But sharing photos of an exciting life can never erase its true pains and troubles. Anxieties linger. The apartment we want is too expensive to afford. Our salary was not raised this year. Our parents are becoming more dependent and we don't know how we will manage.

Psychologists say that maintaining a perfect image on social networks in fact makes people more exhausted. It reduces the opportunities to gain empathy from others by sharing the troubles and hardships in life. This contributes modern people's feel of being isolated in a crowded world.

But how do we see people who always complain on the social media? We say they are too negative, spreading negative energy to others.

Should we just let pictures of delicious food help us envision a perfect life? Or could we follow the lead of my friend who says nothing on social media?

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.