The surroundings we live in have forced us to develop a mindset that if we are not as successful as our peers, then we aren’t successful at all. At least once in your lifetime, you would have compared yourself to an unknown person on the internet and wondered what you did wrong!
Studies have proven that surfing social media for long hours can severely impact our mental health, and it can lead to mental health illnesses like anxiety, depression and stress.
The constant dopamine rush to scroll our social media apps is higher than ever, and it is the youth of our country that is impacted by it the most. Cheap and easy availability of internet connection has led to a situation where teens, as well as adults, spend all their time pouring over their mobile phones. Social media forces us to believe that the others are happy, they have more than us, but this may not even be true.
When we make judgments based upon people’s social media handles, we neglect to think how they are in person—which is what that matters more than anything. So next time, when a perfectly picked moment of someone else’s life turns you green, take a minute for yourself and instead do something worth your time. Try taking a break from social media to let that negativity drain out of your beautiful mind.
Comparison can be positive as well as negative, but it is mostly the latter. We get attracted by the accomplishments of others more than ours because that is human nature, which ultimately leads to us losing our self-esteem even more. Comparing our achievements with that of another not only lessens the importance of what you have done with your life, it also makes one feel as if they have not accomplished much after all, which is usually not true.
The comparison also kills any creativity one might have because the person tends to believe that whatever they are doing is not comparable to what others might be doing. We might not realise, but the comparison has stages too. What might sound like a healthy, harmless comparison at first may take the form of rivalry later on and might cause serious consequences, especially for mental health. One of the hard facts of life that no one points out is that no one is perfect, and neither are their lives; you’ll realise that comparing yourself with others is nothing but sheer wastage of time and energy. Remember, these people, too, have struggled, a fact they would not project on social media.
It is no surprise then that we are all suffering from insecurities; comparing ourselves to others is the worst thing we can do, we won’t realize this at first, but sooner or later, it thrusts us into darkness. One of the things we can do to prevent such comparison from ruining us is by being happy for others instead of getting jealous, to develop self-respect and give out happy vibes.
It is essential to have some unique qualities in a world where most people only end up copying each other. At first, it may seem hard not to compare, but eventually, by practising self-love and engaging in productive activities, you can put yourself in a much better place, both physically and emotionally. So next time, instead of indulging in negativity, trying to spot imperfection in other people’s lives and getting mad over their accomplishments, try to find happiness in the things that you have and be grateful for that.