The Dangers of Comparing Ourselves on Social Media

In this digital age, we are exposed to tremendous and overwhelming amount of information about the lives of others.  Knowing how someone is faring is usually a scroll away and most importantly affordably available to us.

Since our lives are shaped by what we see and listen to, it is not uncommon to compare what we have access to on social media to our own lives. The big question lies on how we react and how our attitudes are shaped by it.

In most cases, we tend to have two reactions to what we see out there. In the first instance, we may feel proud and conceited because we feel others do not measure up to what we have (in appearance, material possession, financial status and educational background). With this feeling, we are prone to exalt ourselves over others and crave for undue attention and respect. You can imagine where this leads to; you forget the Creator and the Giver of all you have and become selfish by giving honour to yourself. This can also lead to treating others inhumanely or with contempt.

The second scenario could be falling into the temptation of pity-partying. When we look at others and feel we do not have what we think others possess, we tend to beat ourselves up. In this case, we have automatically created a free palace for the devil reign and execute his ploys. We may be forced to engage in activities that is contrary to our conscience and values in order look like what we see out there. We may also become ingrates because we will be so occupied with what others seem to have and not have the time to reflect on how far we have come and the tremendous blessings we have.

It is worthy to note that, people control their narrative in the sense that you only see what they want you to see and because human mind is very graphic, we tend to retain the image and form our attitudes based on what we have fed our mind with.

Proverbs 23:7 says "As a man thinks in his heart so is he"

If we ever have to compare, let us compare ourselves to the life of Jesus Christ so we can strive daily to be like him.

Quote:  Successful people are happy with where they are in life. Though they have aspirations for the future and new frontiers they've yet to conquer they're genuinely satisfied with how they've spent their lives so far. (Excerpt from Successful women think differently by Valorie Burton)