Small Scale Comparing
Celebrities have always been happy to flash a peak of their lavish lifestyles to the common masses. From strategically leaked pictures to the tabloids, to deceptively staged episodes of MTV reality shows, stars meticulously control what’s put on display, in an attempt to manipulate their public image. This type of exhibition used to require diligent publicists, skilled photographers, and at least some level of renown in order to ensure a story/picture/sex tape could make it on a platform that was accessible to an audience. This disconnect between the faces in the magazines and the everyday person meant that daydreams of yacht parties with muscular manservants felt more like a fantasy world reserved for an exclusive, elite class, rather than an activity regular people could engage in.
Then the internet happened.
Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and PornHub now give all of us the ability to connect with more people than ever, especially people who are not a part of our everyday lives. This means the average social media user now has their own outlet for displaying a highly curated, idyllic images of #blessed people, living their #bestlife, all with the power to give you major #fomo. Sure, these platforms are also flooded with celebs trying to legitimize their overindulgent behaviors by pandering to impressionable teens for comments and likes, but the real sting comes from seeing the pictures that a vague acquaintance from college shared from her fifth international vacation this year. Or the ones from an old coworker who rented a mansions with twenty of their closest friends for a Memorial Day beach party. Or the ones of that perfect girl from high school marrying her perfect boyfriend of ten years surrounded by their perfect friends and family.
These aren’t snippets from the lives of the rich and famous. You know all those people. You could be any of them.
But you aren’t.
You’re not sailing around the Mediterranean. You don’t have enough friends to fill a house. You can’t get a person to kiss you in public.
Everyone else is having an awesome life.
go on social media and write the life stories of all your friends based only on the content that they’ve posted on various platforms
You know what goes great with comparisons? Rumination!
Remember all that time we spent examining your failures and postulating all the ways your life could have been better if you hadn’t been such an idiot? Good times.