Escaping The Comparison Trap: Step 3

The last two weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind, but I'm sure I'll share more on that later. In the meantime, on to step 3 in Escaping the Comparison Trap.

Becka says:

Step 3. Take Twitter with a grain of salt. Everyone wants to appear happy and successful, so they will usually only share the best. Remind yourself that they have bad days/months/seasons, too.

I’ll be honest, I wish there was a way to apply Step 2 to Twitter because Twitter is even more dangerous. Some days it is just one big brag fest and a constant name drop. And everyone’s positivity when I’m having a bad day can be depressing. But Twitter is a necessary and wonderfully addictive evil in my life (kind of like ice cream), and I love that I can communicate with so many people. So I work Twitter to my advantage and filter what I read through the knowledge that everyone is trying to promote themselves in a positive way, just like I am.

This is by far the easiest step for me. I never got in to Twitter too much. To be honest I only created an account so I could be on Hashtags on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (it hasn't happened yet). But this general phenomena of portraying a perfect version of yourself online translates to facebook and blogs as well. This isn't new. People have been putting their best foot forward for years, but like everything else the internet amplifies it and makes it easier.

Transparency is the key. Other people need to see the good and bad in your life, and you need to see it in theirs. The crazy thing is when we see the bad in each others' lives it can actually ease the effects of the bad in our own lives. I know when I'm going through something(s) rough I am thoroughly convinced that I'm the only person in the entire world that this has happened to. Of course that's not the case and knowing that makes everything a little better.

Here are the first three posts in this series:
Escaping the Comparison Trap: Step 2
Escaping the Comparison Trap: Step 1
Internet Envy

Let the Sun Shine In

Escaping the Comparison Trap: Step 2

In How to Escape the Comparison Trap, Becka's second step is to...

Step 2. Hide the people you don’t actually know from your Facebook feed. You’re wasting time and brainpower trying to keep up with them all.

Second, I hid a BUNCH of people from my Facebook feed. And by a bunch, I mean hundreds. I did not un-friend them; let’s just clarify that from the start. But I now only keep people in my feed whom I actually know in real life and/or work with. It takes me about 5 minutes to catch up on their lives when I open Facebook (instead of the hour or so it took me to read about every single contact I had). And when I’m curious about a particular person, I just look her/him up.

There is a plethora of social awkwardness created by facebook that I doubt Mark Zuckerberg ever envisioned. One is knowing things about people that you shouldn't know. On more than one occasion I've seen a girl I went to high school with around town. I don't talk to her when we pass by each other. I'm not trying to being rude; we're just not friends. Never have been. Yet I know who she's married to, the names of her kids, and where she went for vacation. Not only do I know all that, I've seen the pictures! Talk about creepy.

I agree with Becka; I don't un-friend often, but as I went through my newsfeed I started to click the unsubscribe button. I was really surprised by how many people I was facebook friends with that I was never friends with in real life. Now I can catch up in ten minutes once a week, and that's probably okay. Who knows someone may even tell me something about their life that I haven't already read on facebook.

If you missed them, here are the first two posts in this series:
Internet Envy
Escaping the Comparison Trap: Step 1

Golden Days

Sorry I haven't posted a desktop wallpaper for August, and sorry I'm not sorry. This week I've basically been watching the Olympics from the time I get home from work until I go to bed. I especially enjoyed the women's all around gymnastics last night with bronze medalist...

and the gold medalist...