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Video reminds you not to trust everything you see on Facebook

The short film "What's on your mind?" is a poignant look at the realities of social media, where your friends aren't really as happy as they seem.

On the Internet, you can be anything you want to be. You can quit your dead-end job, give killer presentations, have amazing new relationships, and even run a 20k. Or, as this video from Shaun Higton demonstrates, you can embellish what really happened or just pretend you did all those things in an attempt to convey that you're happy to your friends, even when your life is on a downward spiral.

The video is a poignant reminder of the realities of social media, where everyone appears to be incredibly happy and doing amazing things all the time. The boring, mundane, or depressing pieces of life that everyone experiences don't tend to make it onto their timeline, giving their friends a tainted view of what's really going on with their life. And when you're in a rut, it's easy to go even deeper when you see everyone around you so happy and having so much fun.

Higton's video reminds us to take things your friends post on social media with a grain of salt. Chances are, their lives are just as messy and complicated as yours -- or at the very least, they aren't quite as happy as they're leading you to believe.

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It's tough to get out of a rut when all of your social-media friends appear so happy. Video screenshot by Anthony Domanico/CNET