Is social media making you a jealous person?

It's a common scenario: you're on a crowded train on the way to work, flicking through your BFF's amazing Hawaiian holiday Instagram photos when you're struck with an instant jealousy attack.

While social media is meant to be fun, research has revealed it can actually have a significant impact on our personalities.

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A new study from Spain has found that of the four major personality types they identified in their study – which included optimistic, pessimistic, trusting and envious – one in three people fell into the green-eyed monster category.

The study looked to 541 people and posed hundreds of different social scenarios to them, before categorising them based on their responses.

And it seems that the rise of social media – and how we interpret it and what we see on there – may play a hand in encouraging that kind of behaviour.

“The culture of consumerism creates a void in us, making us feel that we are ‘less than’ or ‘not as whole’ if we don’t have the latest,” clinical psychologist Saliha Afridi tells The National. “Combine that with a plethora of images of people and events that trigger our deepest insecurities and we have a perfect recipe for pathological levels of envy and jealousy."

Sure, it’s easy to think that everyone’s life is as perfect as our carefully composed Instagram feeds make out to be, but people need to remember that this isn’t reality, say experts.

Jealousy doesn't just stop at having serious holiday or hair envy. Who hasn't done a sneaky Facebook stalk of an ex and discovered they're dating someone new? Or gone trawling through the dark depths of your current partner's social media accounts and wondered who they were cosying up to in an old pic?

A 2011 study found the more people reported to monitoring a partner's Facebook profile and activities, the more jealousy they felt.

If you’re guilty of getting flashes of jealousy, remember: it’s what you do with that feeling that counts.

“If you use it to make yourself feel bad, then you're in for some sleepless nights and obsessive self-critical thoughts,” social worker and therapist Rebecca Hendrix tells Allure.

“If you notice something you like on someone's Instagram and use that surge in energy to inspire yourself to manifest something you want, then envy can actually be good for you.”

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