Afternoon folks, hope everyone is keeping well. During these times, a lot of us have had a lot time to reflect on not just our personal lives, but also on the lives of others. What I am referring to, specifically, is the innate human tendency to compare themselves to others. This tendency can have both positive and negative consequences for our well being. A prime example of this ying and yang, you’ve probably guessed it, is social media.
What I believe is hugely detrimental to mental well being is the overuse of media platforms such as Instagram. It is well-documented the addiction in users that Instagram relies on in order to keep the wheel of capitalism turning. Every time you perform the ‘swipe up to refresh’ mechanism, you are feeding the reward department of your brain, providing yourself with a sharp hit of dopamine (the chemical that is associated with positive emotions. One experiences a sharp dopamine hit when they smoke a cigarette, exercise or have an orgasm). Occasionally, one may experience the ‘happy chemical’, which is serotonin. Serotonin hits occur when one watches a funny video, receives a nice text message from a loved one, or reminisces on times gone by by looking at old Instagram stories. There is a host of other things. Overall a mix of the aforementioned chemicals is what makes us human. They are two of the myriad chemicals that our brain mixes together to form the self.
What Instagram, in particular, does is provides the brain with an unsolicited and almost relentless supply of dopamine. I cannot stress enough the negative consequences of this long term. When you are looking at Rob Lipsett’s page, you may feel compelled to view his litany of travel, fitness and food posts, and feel a twinge of envy within. This is because of our innate tendency to compare ourselves to others, exacerbated by our collective addiction to the dopamine we get from looking our phones. When it’s miserable out, and we see Rob Lipsett on holidays for the fourteenth time this year (bearing in mind it’s only bleedin’ April), it’s difficult to not feel even a pang of unhappiness. Such is life for the average person these days. During these times, it is easy to over-consume social media. Handheld media consumption has risen 46% since 2010, and logic suggests this figure will increase considerably as technology improves (i.e. Instagram’s algorithm gets smarter) and we in turn become more addicted (i.e. we will keep seeking the mental rewards in the form dopamine hits). All of this is worsened by the travel ban that may continue for a good while longer.
On the contrary, I believe there are positive consequences to comparing yourselves to others. However, this is not in the ‘jaysus Rob Lipsett has massive arms, I’m gonna hit the gym 7 days a week’ type of comparison. This is a comparison that has empathetic connotations. Instead of comparing ourselves to young Rob (who, like most people, only posts pictures of himself that reflect well on his image), we can compare ourselves to those closer to us. Instead of looking at our phones and wishing we were on a beach in the Maldives, think about how different life would be like if we didn’t live where we do live. How about, instead of comparing our abs to those of fitness models, we are thankful for a body and mind that are pretty much fully operative? How about, instead of bitter towards the travel ban, we are thankful we have a house to live in, Wifi to use, and books to read? Gratitude can emanate from reminding ourselves the simple fact: that life could be worse.
Thank you for reading.
Ponderings on health 