Why You Should Avoid Being Seduced By People’s Facebook Posts
If only our real life could be as interesting, sexy, and successful as our Facebook life makes it out to be.
It’s easy to look at the social media posts of “friends” and acquaintances and get seduced into believing that they live a life of perpetual joy, success, sunshine, lollipops, rainbows, and beautiful people. The truth is, most of the egocentric narcissists (including me) who habitually post on social media sites, rarely show the dark side of their moon. This haunting, intense video by Shaun and Andrew Higton brings this point home.
Although we’re moving towards a season of increased transparency and authenticity throughout society, it takes courage, heart, and guts to share our defeats, frustrations and disappointments in a public setting for fear of being ridiculed or judged too harshly. Since we don’t know the back-story, drama, or trauma that’s led up to people’s current status update (we’re all hiding something), let me share with you a concept that resonated with me years ago during a recovery meeting I was attending: Don’t compare your inside to someone else’s outside.
How to avoid comparison when looking at Facebook posts
The antidote is to: (a) focus on our own lives; (b) embrace the truth that reality is our friend; and (c) prepare a thorough, specific, and daily list of those things for which we are grateful.
