Glamour Shots vs. Daily Grind
One of the most common, yet most insidious ways that social media makes us depressed is through comparison.
For instance, imagine you’re on Facebook. You’re idly perusing your feed, and suddenly, you begin to see images of your friend’s vacation in France. Your friend looks incredibly happy in every picture, and her family life appears perfect.
You begin to consider your “meager” salary and “miniscule” amount of vacation time. As a result, you begin to feel jealous and inadequate, and your self-esteem drops.
But notice the words that have been enclosed within quotation marks. Those words are the result of comparison. When you look at your friend’s pictures, you begin to use negative words like “meager,” and “miniscule” to describe yourself and your resources.
But those words aren’t true. You’ve been tricked by social media.
What you’ve seen are glamour shots—the very best parts of your friend’s life, carefully arranged and curated in order to display perfection.
And you’re comparing that to your everyday life.
Don’t use social media to compare your life to the lives of others—it doesn’t work. People put their best on display, not their normal lives, and so you’ll only find unneeded anxiety and stress in online comparisons.