The difference between someone who feels successful at 40 and someone who feels behind isn't their resume - it's whether they're measuring themselves against their own past or everyone else's highlight reel - Silicon Canals

"Research by Anne Wilson and Michael Ross found that when people are motivated to feel good about themselves, they favor temporal-past comparisons, revealing improvement over time."

"Social media has made looking sideways the default setting of an entire generation, leading to increased feelings of dissatisfaction and misery."

Two primary self-evaluation methods exist: social comparison, where individuals measure themselves against others, and temporal comparison, where they assess their current state against their past. Research indicates that when motivated to feel good, people prefer temporal comparisons, which often show personal improvement. Conversely, when seeking accurate self-assessment, individuals resort to social comparisons. The rise of social media has shifted this tendency, making social comparison the norm and contributing to widespread feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness among users.

Read at Silicon Canals