As it happens, people don’t often post their failures on social media, so if you’re comparing your life to someone else’s, you’re at an inherent disadvantage because you only ever see results.
If you hang out with people in person and involved in their lives, then you get to experience the process leading to the results with all the failure baked in. It’s the difference between porn and sex.
I also think a lot of “doomer” content on social media can have a significant effect if you’re consuming a lot of it.
Imagine you’re a teenager and you’re constantly reading the most extreme takes about how everything is broken and terrible, the bad guys are always winning, you’ll never find love, you’ll never find a job, never own a house, never manage to have a family, etc.
An adult may have the life experience and perspective to recognize that the loudest voices aren’t always 100% accurate, but a kid might take it at face value and despair.
To be fair, my depression started in 3rd grade with an article in the weekly reader about the rain forests being destroyed at a rate of several football fields per day. I knew that couldn’t be good or sustainable. Here we are 35 years later…big sad. Worst thing I ever did was get my kids phones :( at the time it seemed right.
It’s a known phenomenon.
As it happens, people don’t often post their failures on social media, so if you’re comparing your life to someone else’s, you’re at an inherent disadvantage because you only ever see results.
If you hang out with people in person and involved in their lives, then you get to experience the process leading to the results with all the failure baked in. It’s the difference between porn and sex.
I also think a lot of “doomer” content on social media can have a significant effect if you’re consuming a lot of it.
Imagine you’re a teenager and you’re constantly reading the most extreme takes about how everything is broken and terrible, the bad guys are always winning, you’ll never find love, you’ll never find a job, never own a house, never manage to have a family, etc.
An adult may have the life experience and perspective to recognize that the loudest voices aren’t always 100% accurate, but a kid might take it at face value and despair.
To be fair, my depression started in 3rd grade with an article in the weekly reader about the rain forests being destroyed at a rate of several football fields per day. I knew that couldn’t be good or sustainable. Here we are 35 years later…big sad. Worst thing I ever did was get my kids phones :( at the time it seemed right.