Lately, I noticed more and more people talking about the negative side of social media. There are many wonderful things about social media but it also makes us addictive on our phones, distracts us all the time and makes us less social in real life. But one thing concerns me most. It’s social media comparison.
What’s Wrong With Comparison?
I love social media because it’s a great source of visual information which is always needed for a person like me. But while using many social media channels multiple times a day, I noticed some weird things happening. It was a rising self-doubt in my mind. As I am always on a hunt for inspiring people with great ideas and world-changing missions, I get to see their accounts, notice all the good stuff they do and how awesome they are… And at the same time, I unwillingly start to compare myself with them.
A comparison can be a good thing but, when it goes together with social media, it’s destroying. It makes people feel insecure and lowers self-confidence. We start counting likes and check our phones constantly hoping to see more and more people liking our content. With time, it can turn into an obsession. And there’s not even one good thing about it.
Why I’m telling you this? Because I ain’t better. I also noticed myself checking the engagement on my social media profiles more often than needed. I also felt how finding incredible people slowly turn into self-hesitation and make me feel insecure. This weird feeling did no good to the quality of my life so I decided to do my best to eliminate it.
Overcoming the Comparison
The first thing I did once I understood this problem was turning off all unnecessary social media notifications. What do I have in mind by unnecessary? All notifications about the likes, follows, comments and so on. I just left the message notifications turned on because I don’t want to miss them.
Also, I decided to limit my time spent on social media. Therefore, every time I got myself procrastinating and scrolling Instagram or Facebook feed, I turn off the app without hesitation and put the phone away. It might sound inefficient but when I decided to do this, I somehow remember this quite often and do as needed – close the app and put the phone away.
Besides, I made a decision not to worry about things that aren’t under my control and put all my efforts into what I’m responsible for. This also needs a conscious mind but remind me this quite often and it truly helps to fight the social media comparison.
Well, and of course, when I’m using social media sometimes I unconsciously start comparing myself to others so I find myself doing so, I immediately turn off the app and remind myself why I shouldn’t do so.
Overcoming social media comparison requires self-discipline because it’s almost impossible to eliminate social media entirely from our lives. Therefore we must be conscious about the thoughts in our mind and do our best control them. It requires a lot of attention at the beginning but after practicing it for a few days our habits start changing and we can see the result. However, life is much better without comparison so I hope you’ll do your best to free your mind and overcome social media comparison as well!