Social media can really make you question your life sometimes. I log on to Facebook in the morning to check my news feed and suddenly am inundated with "I'm engaged", "Look at my cute new baby", "I's married now y'all". And my single, childless ass is sitting there thinking damn am I the only one not married and with no kids? So I log on to LinkedIn trying to be all professional and stuff and see "XYZ has a new job as President of DEF co", "GHI is now a partner at Law Firm, Law Firm & Law Firm" and I think great I'm behind everyone professionally too oh joy.
"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence"
"Keeping up with the Joneses (or Kardashians even though it pains me to write that)"
Those old phrases speak to people comparing their lives to the lives of others and thinking they don't measure up. So this isn't something new but social media definitely makes it worse. Through social media I hear about the lives of people every day that I would normally only hear about every few years at a class reunion. Since people generally post about positive things happening in their lives (except for those people that are always complaining but that's a subject for another blog) then I am constantly seeing these great milestones in their lives and I end up comparing them to what's happening or not happening in my life. It can definitely make you feel like everyone but you is doing great at this thing called life.
Sidenote: people who went to University of Michigan Law School between 2004 and 2007 are all of you married/getting married/having babies? I mean seriously all of you really? Anyway back to my main rant.
However I have to remind myself that a Facebook post or LinkedIn update doesn't even begin to tell the story of what is really going on in someone's life. I don't know what's going on in your relationships, or what it's like day-to-day having a baby (thank God because I'm not ready for that). No one's life is completely happy and fulfilled all the time. Everyone has struggles and they likely aren't showing all of their struggles on Facebook or Twitter (again unless you are the constant complainer).
Ultimately my private struggles will never measure up to someone else's milestones and accomplishments and to compare them is an exercise in futility, frustration and self doubt. Bottom line is I'm not the only one that doesn't have my shit together but through social media I don't see everyone else's shit.
I guess the moral of this blog is show more of your shit people but not all of it all the time because no one likes a constant complainer.
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