- Your life is boring
Influencers have become such prominent people in our society that people forget the literal job of influencers is to live amazing lives. They get paid to go on luxurious vacations, wear expensive clothing and use high-end products. The lives of normal people just cannot compare. Your life is not boring; you’re just not getting paid to live an abnormal life.
- Happiness Lies in Improvement
The amount of before and after videos on TikTok or Instagram is insane, whether the videos are about weight gain/loss or learning news skills. While promoting self-improvement is extremely important, I think another message tends to follow some of these videos: you will not be happy unless you change something about yourself. Happiness does not always come from improving yourself in some manner; you could be the healthiest, smartest person alive and still struggle with self-hatred. Sometimes, the lesson that needs to be learned is not to improve yourself but to accept yourself.
- Having a Good Mindset is Easy
It’s very rare to see someone you follow posting about their mental health struggle. I’ve seen video after video of people getting up early everyday and being routinely productive. However, just because someone else has a routine put in place and practices healthy habits does not mean they are more mentally capable than you. You never know people’s reasons for doing things; maybe their routine is a result of a need for self control in their lives. Maybe they only post the healthy food they eat but struggle with binge-eating off-screen. It’s easy to look put together on social media; don’t compare your mental mindset to somebody else’s on a screen.
- Everyone Has the Same Beliefs as You
This lie is a very constructed one. With social media pages tailored to fit your interests, people have become more and more biased to issues, only seeing posts that reiterate what they already believe. This personalization leads to intolerance and ignorance. There truly are large groups of people who believe oppositely from you; you just have to make the effort to look outside your own current interests and beliefs.
- You are Unoriginal
With most of America on social media, there are millions of posts each day. When you see so many people with the same interests, the same skill sets, or the same thoughts, it’s easy to feel ordinary. Sometimes I feel like I’ve never had an original thought. But no two people are the same and no one can do what you were meant to do. Refuse to believe the lie that you don’t have something special to contribute to the world.