From the past few days, I did not get the time to use social media as often as I would. Today when I went back on social media I realised that I am falling back into the cycle of comparing my life with people. It then hit me that from a past few days where I was busy, the world around me changed, the birds were chirping, the flowers were blooming. This was a joke obviously.
But I did notice that I wasn’t comparing my life and was focussing on myself.
Social media is a place where everyone shows how perfect their lives are, even if taking that one picture took them three hours of hard work. Scrolling through social media makes us have questions like
How are they going out daily?
How are they having so many friends?
How do they get such good pictures?
Well, I am not hating on the people who have friends or spend time taking their pictures. They are doing what they want which is good. The problem arises when we start thinking of their lives as “perfect” and start looking down on our lives.
Let’s take an example of how social media makes us feel bad about our lives:
Imagine you have a day planned for working or doing an assignment. Let me tell you which is completely normal. But then you go on social media and see people have fun and it makes you feel bad about your life.
I know we do like posting a picture and getting likes and comments. So, I am not telling you to stop using social media. I am just asking you to remember where to stop. So today when I realised that I was going to fall back in that cycle I stopped and took a break from social media. I went and did something else because I am in a good place right now and I don’t want other people’s life to affect my life.
So the next time you are using social media always remember a few things:
No one has a perfect life: There is no such thing as a perfect life, every person has their share of problems. So, don’t make yourself feel bad about why your life isn’t perfect.
Everything we see is not real: we see stories of people going out every day. Well, they may not always have as much fun as it is shown on social media. I have ordered a few fancy-looking food and, to tell you the truth it did not taste as good as it looked. Even in stories that people post with their friends, they show how much fun they are having but in reality, people are just sitting and are using their devices and scrolling through social media.
Quality not quantity: having a big friend group is fun but they have a lot of drama too. So if you are someone with even 2-4 good friends, appreciate that because you would rather spend time with real friends than be surrounded by fake friends.
Gratitude: we need to be grateful for all that we have. We know that some people don’t even have what we currently have. If you are reading this article that means you do have a device to read it in so be thankful for that and don’t compare your life with people.
Live in the moment: There is a difference between living the moment and, only capturing it. I remember going to a concert and only recording the concert and not really enjoying it or living the moment. I wished that I lived in the moment. But, I was 13 at that time and lacked brain cells. So, don’t repeat my mistake.
Social media is a great platform and can be used to promote small businesses, raise funds, help people out, make money, become an influencer, etc. But if your mental health is getting affected by it and you are subconsciously feeling bad about your life you need to stop and take a break from it.
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