Disclaimer: I am 100% guilty of almost everything I'm going to talk about in this blog post.
"Comparison is the root of all Unhappiness"
I'm pretty sure some really smart, famous guy said that and you know what? He's absolutely right. Comparison gets in the way of healthy self-appreciation more than anything else. Our generation has more ways to compare ourselves to one another than any other generation before us: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Because of comparison, we are hardly ever happy with what we get and nothing's ever good enough once we do get it. We measure our success against the accomplishments of others. Whether we are happy with what we get depends on how it measures up to some norm...and you know what? It is hard for success in any form to actually improve your happiness because as actual success rises, the norm by which success is judged rises as well.
Another way this has been described is the "grass in greener" problem. Everyone's lawn seems really great when you see it from far away. That is what social media helps create. It profiles of exactly what you want others to see. You can create a new you, essentially. We scroll through our news feeds seeing pictures of great vacations, internships, jobs, once in a life time experiences... it's amazing how quickly we can forget our own. In these times it's hard to remember that no one displays the hard times, the things they don't want people to see.
What I have been trying to do...whenever I feel particularly jealous, frustrated or just plain hopeless, is remember all the things I am grateful for. All the positive things that I like about myself. I try to keep perspective and remember that no one's life is perfect. I also try to remember that life is a series of choices with different outcomes, and my series of choices has left me with a bunch of great opportunities, a fabulous family and friends, an awesome school and tons of other blessings. If I had what that other person does, there is no guarantee that all the great things in my life would still be there. I don't know and will never know what struggles I would adopt as a result. That is why I have decided to own my choices, my life, and my struggles, because I wouldn't trade all those really great things for anything.
I want to go on about how we should all DELETE OUR FACEBOOKS AND INTERACT WITH ONE ANOTHER but that seems like a mute point considering I'm about to post this on Facebook.
Source: http://www.dreammanifesto.com/comparison-root-unhappiness.html
