Editing Our Lives

Life is full of important moments. Think about your favorite vacations, holiday dinners with your family, and the biggest stepping stones in your career. These are the kinds of moments that you want to remember forever, right?

But for many people, just remembering isn't good enough. They want a physical reminder of what those moments felt like, so they take pictures, record videos, and keep souvenirs. These reminders transport them back in time, letting them relive the joy, beauty, or surprise of a single moment from their past.

But when you start posting those photos on social media, something strange happens. You stop focusing on the moment itself. You stop remembering what really happened and you start thinking about what you can change. You start cutting photos you don't look your best in, even if that photo makes you laugh or cry. You start doctoring how your experiences looked or felt.

Why is that? Because you want other people to see how perfect and powerful your life is. Many people on social media are so focused on displaying perfection that their real life gets lost in the mix. The person on their profile may resemble an idealized version of themselves. They've changed their whole life just to impress a bunch of people on the internet.

If you start editing your life, you stop appreciating how imperfect it can be. If you look at a sunset, you might focus on taking the perfect picture, brightening the colors, or creating the right mood instead of actually enjoying the sunset in real time. You pay less and less attention to the powerful moments as they happen and you stop appreciating experiences for what they are. Each one just feels like another opportunity to brag on social media.

Dependence on Reinforcement

Views, likes, and comments are all different kinds of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is when someone gives you a reward for doing something good. Imagine a parent who gives their kid ice cream for behaving at the doctor. They're reinforcing their child's good behavior with a positive reward, hence the name positive reinforcement.

Now, on social media, virtual compliments are no different than someone handing you an ice cream. Each one makes you feel good about yourself. It tells you that someone in the world likes you, admires you, or even envies you. It gives you a boost of self-worth which motivates you to keep going. You might feel special after posting a picture online, so you post another and then another until you're posting on social media every single day. And just like that, you've become dependent on positive reinforcement.

You started relying on these platforms to make you feel good, and that can be dangerous. If you don't practice appreciating yourself, it gets harder and harder to do it on your own. You forget how to value yourself. So don't let social media take that away from you. The occasional boost never hurt anybody, but if you're fishing for compliments online, it can really mess with your brain.

Wasting Our Time

Social media is a notorious time waster. Without even realizing it, you might spend hours every single day browsing through different platforms. Some people lie awake in bed scrolling through page after page until it's suddenly 2:00 in the morning.

Others use social media in small bursts. They might spend only five minutes at a time on their phone, but they do this every single hour of the day. It seems like they're barely ever on social media, but those five-minute increments really add up. By the evening time, you've lost an hour or more of your time, which you could have spent on work, hobbies, or with your family.

Time is one area where social media becomes especially destructive. It twists the way you think. It distracts you with all those buttons, pictures, and videos, and your brain loses track of time.

The Motivation Killer

Social media and motivation are natural enemies. In fact, social media is one of the most common ways that people procrastinate. When you're feeling stressed or insecure, social media offers you the chance to get lost in other people's lives and leave behind the stress of your own.

But there are plenty of other time wasters that do the same thing. Take watching TV or playing video games. Both of these activities distract your mind from whatever it's supposed to be doing. But social media hurts your motivation in a way that no other bad habit does. It destroys your productivity and your self-esteem.

Each time you browse through social media, you see people doing amazing things. Maybe they're traveling the world or chasing their dreams. Now, on the surface, these kinds of profiles seem inspiring, right? But deep down, they make you feel worse about yourself. You can't help but compare your life to theirs, so you hone in on all the ways you wish your life were different. These comparisons tear your motivation apart, not just because you're procrastinating with social media, but because you don't feel as satisfied with the life you're living, and that makes you lazy. So do yourself a favor, cut down on social media so this bad habit doesn't ruin your motivation.

Blocking Our Happiness

Does social media change your mood too? Most social media seems harmless. It's just something you do when you're waiting in line or trying to fall asleep. But social media isn't just a way to pass the time. It can actually stop you from being happy.

A 2013 study from the journal PLoS ONE discovered that avid Facebook users feel less satisfied and not just with their jobs or social circles but with their lives in general. People who frequently used Facebook were lonelier, had lower self-esteem, and felt less supported. Now, on the other hand, people who rarely used their accounts were more fulfilled and confident.

Oh, but it's not just Facebook. No, no. Another study from 2017 published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine tested this on 11 different media platforms. They tried everything from Instagram to Reddit. They even collected data from career-oriented platforms like LinkedIn. But no matter where they looked, the results were always the same. Social media had a negative effect on people's happiness, and avid users had higher perceived isolation. In other words, even if you have a lot of friends, you'll still feel lonely and less satisfied.

I know social media might seem like a fun way to pass the time, but the truth is it can stand in the way of your happiness.

The Cycle of Jealousy

Every time you log on to your account, you participate in a jealous cycle. In fact, many social media users try to create that jealousy in other people. The cycle of jealousy starts when you browse through the profile of someone you admire.

Now, in your eyes, they're doing something amazing, and you respect or envy them for it. So you try to make your profile look amazing too. But that just means someone else is going to look at your pictures and think, "Wow, I wish I was doing that," and they're going to carry that feeling into their own virtual lives. And just like that, a chain of jealousy can span across dozens or even hundreds of people.

So how does that jealousy impact your brain? Suddenly you're not thinking about the life you want. You're not living for you anymore. You're living to make other people jealous. You only feel satisfied when people envy you, and you get bitter when they don't. My point is social media pulls you into this vicious cycle. If you're not careful, you'll lose sight of what really matters.

To learn more about how social media affects our lives, check out our articles on [Read Review Talk](https://readreviewtalk.com/) and [our blog](https://readreviewtalk.com/blog/).