Don’t get me wrong: I love social media and I am a very active participant and user on most all social media sites out there. It is a very useful tool for making connections with others, for keeping up with old friends, and for discovering new things. Like I said, I love that social media promotes relationships. But in the midst of that, it also generates a toxic environment.
While technology provides the privilege for us to keep up with what everyone is doing, it comes with a price. That price is a comparison.
Comparison is a thief of joy. As I scroll through my newsfeed or snapchat stories, I become engrossed in what other people are doing and do not see value in what I’m doing.People try to use the best filters and get the right angle to present themselves in the best possible light.But the thing is, we trick ourselves into believing it’s real. We get drawn into a frame of reality that feeds us lies about ourselves.
The lies start out small like “She’s prettier than me” and turn into “I’m incompetent” or “I’m not talented like them." These are assumptions based purely on what we see, which are usually exaggerated or even false because social media always us not only to present the best version of ourselves but also reinvent ourselves.
Comparing ourselves to others in social media leads us to think irrationally about who we are. It affects the way we see ourselves so much that sometimes we do not find joy in ourselves. When using social media, we need to be aware of how we are using it. It does not always have to be a competition.
It is difficult in this day and age not to succumb to these cultural norms. Social media is a cultural phenomenon and it changes the way we interact, the way we think, and the way we see ourselves. We must be aware that what we see becomes part of our reflection. We need to clear the glass and repair our mirrors. We need to be genuine, and authentic. We need to view each other through a different lens.
Because we’re human, we’ll always be comparing ourselves to others. But we need to look and see what’s actually there, not just words in a status or pictures in a newsfeed. We need to believe in our own self-worth. We need to create our own self- image, the one we want people to see, not the one that we think they’ll want to see.
