Social media can be a great way to connect with new friends and even build relationships, and can even allow you to reconnect with old friends and flames. It also provides us with a quick and easy way to communicate with each other, easily accessible news and information, and overall, is fun to use. However, social media does have its downsides and a lot of times, it affects our everyday moods and perspectives of ourselves.

In a lot of ways, social media can be toxic.

No, actually, social media itself isn't toxic, but how we use, and sometimes abuse it, is. As a generation, we have developed a bad habit of comparing ourselves to others as we scroll through our feeds and double-tap here and there. We find ourselves hating our bodies, our lifestyles, and ourselves ultimately because someone posted a decent picture.

Stop and think about how many pictures they took before finding the right one with the perfect lighting and angle. How many poses and facial expressions did they go through? How many outtakes do they truly have? How do you know they don't get discouraged or their self-esteem doesn't drop a couple pegs? You don't.

But that's the point. Whether it be a celebrity, social media influencer, or just some pretty girl/good-looking guy, no one's perfect - and I doubt that they can achieve that insta-worthy photo on the first try.

Still, when you see their pictures on your feed, you can't help but compare yourself to them.

Well, stop! I know it's hard, I do. I know I have to go through at least 20 or 30 pictures until I find the one and if I don't, I give up and decide that I'm not posting anything for the day. I scroll through Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and see my friends glowing in their pictures, or that they have an aesthetic to their page that I wish I had.

I used to compare myself harshly to other people and ask, "Why can't I look like them?", "Why aren't I that pretty?" or "Man, I wish I could do that", and eventually that took me to a dark place and I was drowning.

Now, I'm better about this. I still compare myself to others, granted, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. It took a while but I had reminded myself that we are all our own person.

We're not meant to be someone's 2.0 by any means.

We all have different appearances, lead different lives, and come from different circumstances and backgrounds. I had never taken this seriously before, or at least acknowledged the power behind it, but Teddy Roosevelt once said "Comparison is the thief of joy", and it's absolutely true.

The reality of the situation is that people post things that they want their audiences to see. Very rarely are we exposed to the truth or embarrassing behind-the-scenes moments. The people and pages we compare ourselves to are beyond polished and the amount of time we spend wishing and wanting to be them is wasted. Steven Furtick said it best:

"The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel."

As soon as you come to terms with that, you'll do significantly better.

Embrace your truth and what makes you YOU. Instead of belittling yourself, embrace who you are; quirky, unpolished, imperfect. It can be difficult to make this adjustment but it'll help your self-esteem in the long run.

Instead of going down the proverbial rabbit hole of self-doubt as you make these comparisons, think of some ways that you can stop those thoughts right in their tracks. This article that I found highlights some things that I've found productive and helpful.

Remember: what you may see is not what you get, and their "success" does not equate to your "failure."