How Curated Content is Changing How We See Ourselves

📝 This Week's Depth

Isn't it interesting how a few minutes of scrolling can make a perfectly good day seem... incomplete?

We're constantly exposed to everyone's best moments, biggest wins, and perfectly filtered photos.

A tap or a scroll is all it really takes for you to feel unsatisfied with your life. After seeing someone's career advancement, dream home purchase, or relationship status change, you start to question every decision you've ever made.

The true danger here isn't necessarily the edited highlight reels of others' lives. What is really happening is that we are beginning to edit ourselves - not just online, but in our own minds.

Then we begin to wonder why our beginning chapters don't look like someone else's later chapters.

We start to compare our roads as though they should be the same as everyone else's. It becomes almost instinctual for us to look up people's ages in order to assess if we are as "successful" as them (be honest, you've done this before 👀).

It's an odd feeling, watching others "race" ahead while you feel stuck in place.

Yet there is a more pressing question that exists beneath this surface comparison. What if what we're really struggling with isn't just others' success? What if it's our interpretation of what their success means about us?

Just think about it: when we see someone get promoted, it's rarely just about their promotion. In our minds, it becomes a story about our own career path. Are we moving too slowly? Have we made the wrong choices?

Similarly, when someone shares their fitness transformation, it becomes a measurement of what we have yet to accomplish.

The cruel trick of comparison is that it leaves us right where it wants us. It morphs others' moments of joy into our own moments of self-doubt. It is as if we take their achievements and use them as evidence of our own perceived inadequacies.

What makes this even more challenging is that we can use others' highlight moments to validate or invalidate our entire life path.

Someone's wedding becomes living proof that we're somehow "behind" in life. Someone's picture-perfect family has us second guessing our decision to focus on personal growth first.

We forget that success isn't a single road, but rather many roads with multiple routes.

Each highlight we see is just one way to live, not the only way to live. Want to switch careers at 33? It's not too late to make the change! Maybe it's exactly when it needs to happen for you.

So, what can we do about this vicious cycle of social media consumption and comparison?

The answer isn't as simple as "just stop scrolling" or "delete all your apps." Personally, I think there are some positive aspects to social media that warrant its continued use in my life.

A better solution would be to develop a more conscious relationship with the way we consume other people's stories and interpret our own. In other words, as we celebrate others' successes, we should never lose sight of our own.

Comparing is human nature, that's for sure. What we don't see on these feeds is people's doubts or failures.

We also overlook the fact that we all come from radically different backgrounds, bringing with us our own advantages and challenges. To compare our journey to another's is like trying to force together puzzle pieces from entirely different pictures.

No story is ever intended to be an exact template to follow, but simply a reminder that everyone's journey unfolds at their own pace and in their own way. The most important thing is to move forward in a way that feels authentic to you.

💭 Thought Ripples

• Some of the most beautiful parts of our story can be found in the scenes we'd rather not post

• The most authentic connections come from sharing unedited moments

• The only timeline that matters is the one that values your own growth

🤔 The Inner Question

What parts of your journey are you not giving yourself enough credit for because they don't look 'picture perfect'?

🌟 Growth Notes

📱 Practice: A Social Media Audit

Take stock of how different accounts make you feel! It goes a long way.

📖 Tool: Journaling

Keep a "behind-the-scenes vs. highlight reel" journal to document your own journey's full picture.