Social Media Comparison Culture: Why Young Women Are Exhausted
Sara starts her day with checking Instagram. Within a couple of minutes, she sees her friends on holiday influencers with the perfect life, former classmates celebrating career achievements and couples posting romantic gestures, by the time she gets to university, she already feels like she’s failing at life.
Globally but specifically in London, social media has created an impossible standard you’re not just comparing yourself to people that you know you’re comparing yourself to thousands of people through their posts.
The impact that this can have on one’s mental health is huge! As human beings we weren’t supposed to have this much information at our fingertips all at once, it’s too much for us to handle so because of this some of us may feel like our brains are about to explode! (metaphorically). Because of all this information that we are consuming, a lot of women may feel anxious or depressed or start to have poor body image issues because everything that they see online and because of that they constantly compare themselves to others and feel as if they’re not enough.
Whereas in my opinion, there’s no such thing as the perfect body, the best career, the perfect social life the amazing romantic relationship, expensive home and holidays etc, because one person’s dream may be another’s nightmare. The comparison trap doesn’t just steal joy; it steals authenticity as you start performing for an audience instead of living for yourself. You make sure to always post make sure your captions are always on point; you measure your worth by likes and comments and you feel pressured to document experiences instead of just experiencing them.
The best things that you can do for yourselves is take necessary breaks when consuming social media content. Taking breaks from social media doesn’t make you weak, it protects your peace your life doesn’t have to look perfect online for it to be valuable. You are enough exactly as you are regardless of what your feed tells you.