How To Prevent Comparison From Stealing Your Joy

Photo courtesy of Melinda Gimpel on Unsplash

In my last post where I discussed the best and worst ways that social media impacts my life, I mentioned the fact that, on social media, it's super easy to compare yourself to others; or compare your life to the lives of others. In that same post, I also offered a few tips on how to combat that comparison. But let's really talk about this for a minute, because I know just how quickly comparison can kill your mood; and it's not always even caused by Instagram or anything on social media, but by real life. As a matter of fact, for me personally, comparison with people that I know in real life kills my mood much quicker than any Instagram post from someone I follow on the internet.

This isn't to say that I'm not happy for these people, whether I just know them from social media or in real life, when good things come their way; but sometimes I can't help but wonder when my time will come for certain things, and sometimes will mind will also say "or if my time will come", which is never a fun thought. Especially when it comes to those things that I've always dreamed of, that I really thought I'd have by the time I turned 25; but here I am at 25 (and a half), and I'm still living at home, I've never been on a vacation that was anything more than a day trip, I'm basically single, I'm socially awkward AF, and the list goes on and on. Meanwhile, others from my graduating class (2013) are buying their first home, getting married, having kids, getting big promotions; you get the idea. I can relate to so much of what one of my favorite bloggers, Lucy Mary, said in her post about having a mid-life crisis in your mid-20s. Apparently, you don't have to be in your mid-30s or 40s to have one; because I certainly feel like I'm having one!

As I was saying though, that kind of comparison can seriously make you go from completely feelin' yourself to "what the fuck am I doing with my life" quickly.  But depending on how you handle it, and how you talk to yourself in these situations, you can bring yourself out of that state of mind, and you can even turn comparison into a way to find a bit of gratitude!

The Best And Worst Ways Social Media Has Impacted My Life

Photo courtesy of Dominika Pecková on Unsplash

Ever since I got my first computer in my room with high-speed internet, I spent a lot of time online, and even more specifically on some sort of social media site; although when I was younger many of them were more targeted at kids and young teens and had stricter rules to protect the safety of children while still allowing them to connect with others who have the same interests and make new friends (we need more sites and app like this now honestly). Either way though, whether I was on Zwinky or on MySpace (yes, that was a thing), watching YouTube videos, or if I was using an IM service like AIM or Yahoo Messenger (okay I really feel old now), I was spending most of my free time outside of school on some sort of social media website. And I still do this now as an adult; just now I use Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, WeHeartIt, Facebook, YouTube, and a few others now instead of MySpace and the online games. 

I'll be honest, I know I spend way to much time on social media and the internet in general. Although I think that may be due to the fact that I was an outcast in school, and didn't leave the house much; as I didn't really have anyone to spend time with in real life. All that being said, I've spent enough time online to see both the bad and the good sides of social media. Seriously though, while older generations, in particular, and the media often portray social media as a bad thing, it's not all bad; and can even be beneficial if used in a positive way. Don't get me wrong though, social media can also be extremely toxic if used in the wrong ways, and it's nearly impossible not to stumble across nasty things from time to time; and they definitely should be talked about, but the positive side of social media shouldn't be forgotten either. So today I'd like to go over the best and the worst ways that social media had affected my life personally.