Koen Damhuis (Netherlands) is author of the bestseller ‘The Virtual Mirror: How facebook makes us unhappy’ (2012) on the influence of social media on our self esteem. Koen is a sociology graduate at Sorbonne (Paris), but also studied musicology, French literature and public policy. Koen dives deep into any societal debate into which his curious nature drives him.

In his TED talk, he will talk about how the ubiquitous presence of Facebook makes us unhappy, because it confronts us with friends who always seem to look better, wittier and more successful. In a non-stop survival of the hippest, the divide between the offline world and our virtual image of it gets wider, making it harder and harder to accept the failures of ordinary life. Facebook turns into a Fakebook, a mask making us look more interesting and attractive than we actually are. Koen will not only explain how these processes work, but also talk about the ways to survive in our ‘Facebook society’.