Stop comparing your life to others'

If there's one thing I've learned about Facebook, it's that it seems designed to make people envy each other. The child-free couple taking off on a cruise vacation at the drop of a hat. The newlyweds boasting of how perfect their lives are together. Sally posting pictures at the finest restaurants in Beverly Hills.

Many people seem to use the social networking site as a way to portray their lives as being better than yours and mine. And some of them will go to the ends of the earth to get as many "likes" and positive comments as they possibly can.

Thus the reason I've cut back on my use of Facebook in recent months. It's also devolved into a popularity contest of sorts that I wish not to be a part of.

Maybe you don't wish to compare your life to others' because you're happy with it as it is. Just because the Coopers have three kids and a dog, live in a huge house, and go to Disney World every three months doesn't mean I have the least bit interest in sharing that lifestyle.

Going back to the likes and comments, people seem to use Facebook as a way to seek validation for everything from their hobbies to their life choices. For example, what would a woman think if she received zero likes after posting that she just learned she's pregnant? It might lead her to assume that she made the wrong choice, or that it's somehow socially unacceptable.

I just irks me when people try to use Facebook to make others envious of them. It bothers me even more when others take the bait and actually begin comparing their lives to those posting the pictures and videos.

You have your life. I have mine. Sally has hers. Ben has his. If all our lives are completely different, that's okay. No one's life is necessarily better than the next person's. If you have no interest in taking vacations to the Caribbean, buying a $500 purse, having kids, or becoming a nurse, don't feel pressured into doing any of these things just because your friends on Facebook are doing them.

Live life on your own terms. Don't become envious of what others have, for you need to blaze your own distinct path. And remember, the ones boasting of how wonderful their lives are on Facebook might just be putting up a front. We don't know what's really happening in their lives outside of Facebook. Think about it: if a person tries that hard to sell us on how happy their lives are, it probably means that, beneath the surface, things aren't all that peachy.

Focus on making YOUR life the very best it can be. What others do and have is irrelevant.

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