Social media has made it incredibly easy to catch a glimpse of other people’s personal lives, which were secret just a few years back. From personal pictures you’d otherwise never see to the statuses about our innermost thoughts, we know far more than ever before. However, it’s important to remember that what we are seeing is a superficial and blinkered view of those relationships or career progressions that we are so envious of. What do we really know about the intense smiles, loved-up statuses and overt displays of affections?
If you’re struggling with your relationship, it can be difficult to constantly be reminded about how great other people’s lives are through the open window displayed on social media. Facebook pictures, for example, don’t highlight all of the difficulties in that couples relationship, but on the outside they look happy and in love. Relationships are complex and require a lot of work – we are all aware that no relationship is happy and complication-free 100 percent of the time. Social media seemingly contradicts this fact though, so we fool ourselves into believing that we are the only ones with any problems. It’s like a reality show – it may seem real, but it is simply a snapshot of a person’s relationship, not the whole story.
If you’re struggling not to compare, try to spend less time each week on social media channels and see if that makes a difference. Unplugging from technology, if only for a few weeks, can have a great impact on your perspective and may help you put more emphasis on what you have rather than what you don’t. In doing so, you can spend more time focusing on your own life and placing less importance on the so-called ‘real life’ of others.
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