Almost everything you see on social media is the best version of people’s lives. Except for news. That’ generally the most pessimistic version, and for a good reason.
Apart from that, it just feels that everyone is doing the best in whatever they are doing . Survivorship bias ? Maybe.
People are making $200K+ in FAANG firms with less than 5 years of experience on Linkedin. On Instagram, almost everyone is travelling to exotic places with a personal photographer by their side. Twitter has guys making millions after tax per year with their side-hustles. Crypto investors are getting 100x on their investments and leaving their 9–5 within a year’s time.
Does this depress you? Do you feel this constant surge of putting yourself out there and doing some, or all of the things everyone else is doing?
If you’re like me (an average person), chances are that you answered this in affirmative. You also are addicted to the idea of constant productivity . This essentially means you’re trying to be more productive (usually for monetary outcomes) with all your free time.
Let me talk about a few key points in this faulty reasoning.
1. The people we see across social media are a relatively tiny fraction of the usual public. And this has always been the case. Social media has just enabled them to put themselves and their stories out there.
2. You’re doing great. Someone who has a decently paying day job and prefers to chill on weekends with their , is doing great. Most (99%) people are like this.
3. The influencers — they are lying. I can cite countless sources (books and videos) that have busted the forged approach influencers take to gather social media attention. Fake income claims, rosy lifestyle shoots and copy pasted side hustle hacks are being done aplenty. All of this to sell their personal brands to you, hoping you will join the bandwagon of followers. And network is leverage, mostly for ads.
The bottomline is this — you should be happy. If partying, gardening, going for a walk with your loved ones or having a home cooked family dinner makes you feel good, there just cannot be a better use of time. There are countless studies that have confirmed that the relative happiness doesn’t increase beyond a point , with a proportional increase in wealth. If you don’t fall into a bracket where you don’t have enough for your essentials — food, shelter and clothing, chances are that an incremental wealth won’t directly help raise your happiness levels.
So. Please watch your favourite show and take that extra long afternoon nap. Nobody gets out of this alive anyways!
