[colpabar]

> It comes down to you, are you using that as fuel to motivate you or are you seething inside and burning with envy?

> I honestly believe that envy is the thief of joy and if you allow it to consume you it will destroy you.

It's nice that you are able to do this, but most don't use social media this way. They see successful, beautiful people doing interesting things and they feel sad that they can't do the same. Can't you empathize?

[BhavdeepSethi]

So true. It's almost ironic how they mention they feel good when something good happens to someone else, but when not everyone may feel the same, then it's their problem.

"Why can't this be happening to me?" is considered envy, but "Why are you not happy for others like me?" is considered moral high ground.

[ben174]

(not op) Empathize yes, but I would encourage people to try as much as they possibly can to change their viewpoint from envy to joy. I think that's a healthier solution than hiding from it.

[lavascornedoven]

What is presented on social media is recognized as profile building by prof. Mueller, a recently developed phenomenom that he named profilicity in his book "You and your profile". I've always found all the shining social media accounts as inauthentic and distateful, but the book helped me realize how I developed profiles for myself and also how to recognize them by others. The end result: now I see the profiles just as highly currated expression of one's identity and don't stress at all about it.

[xtracto]

This made me think: Back in the 90s when I was a teen there were several magazines here in Mexico (ERES, Tú) and the "socials" section in the local newspaper which dedicated to show you the amazing life of socialtes and other famous (or not so famous) people. Teenage girls and boys used to buy and "read" those magazines to get up to speed on the latest gossip, but also just to see what these people were doing.

Do you think that was bad for kids those days?

[sizzle]

compare reading a monthly magazine back then to today where it takes milliseconds to doom scroll through your unlimited, hyper-optimized for engagement “happiness highlight reel” social media newsfeed in the palm of your hand with 24/7 availability… yes it’s much much worse for kids today and both psychologically and behaviorally.

[OOPMan]

I think there is a pretty key difference which is pretty obvious.

Said obvious difference being the near real-time interactive nature of social media.