People on social media are lying to you
Or at least showing you the most favourable version of the truth.
I think most people are intuitively aware of this, but I don’t believe many people have wholeheartedly and consciously brought it into the forefront of their minds.
So I will repeat it: 99% of the posts you see of people’s lives on Instagram are lies, or it is 1% of the truth. How do I know this? Because I am guilty of this too, and I work with clients who tell me tell me that their lives are falling apart whilst on socials; they are smiling with a drink in their hand.
So, the next time you are doom scrolling on Instagram, feel less than or guilty about your life not being as “perfect” as you see there. Remind yourself that you are not seeing the complete picture of what is happening for that person.
For some reason or another, we have become socially conditioned to put up this perfect front, and I don’t think this leads to authentic connections with ourselves and other people. I’m not a proponent of vulnerability porn, but there is something about being more open about what is actually going on for us.
“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it's having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it's our greatest measure of courage.”
Brene Brown
Albeit this is magnified on socials, this can also be true for people you meet in person. On the surface, they might seem like the calmest person you have ever met, whilst on the inside, there is a storm of anxiety and insecurity reeling through their system.
Unless someone is 100% open, which no one is, we will never know the entire truth about someone. Be it on social or in person, we are all, to some extent, curating what the world gets to see of us.
The lesson to take away here is that we should never make assumptions about other people and base our self-worth on what we see on social media. Just because someone is good at making funny videos on Instagram does not mean they feel any good about themselves.
Improving your self-worth
As we are social beings, it is impossible not to be affected by external validation and how others decide to live their life. At the same time, we should work towards internally validating ourselves and improving our sense of self-worth.
I see this in so many of my clients; they set too many of other people’s needs before their own. Again, we are social beings, so sometimes other people’s needs have to come for ours. However, it is not worth it when that is consistently throwing your well-being down the drain.
Life is way too short for that.
So, the antidote to being too affected by doom-scrolling on Instagram is validating yourself and increasing your self-worth.
You can start validating yourself by:
Acknowledging your strengths, successes, progress and effort
Setting healthy boundaries and honouring them
Accepting your limitations and mistakes
Practice self-compassion and self-kindness
Be patient with yourself
Noticing and accepting your feelings
You can read more on PsychCentral
You can increase your self-worth by:
Progress over perfection
Remove toxic relationships
Turn your inner critic into an inner coach
You can read more on PsychCentral
Final words
Next time you scroll through socials or meet someone in person whose life seems perfect, you start to feel worse about yourself.
Pause and ask: What am I assuming about this person who makes me feel worse? And is that true?
Want to book a one-to-one with me?
You can book a psychic sitting and healing session with me over at Esoteric Studies Institute.