There’s a kernel of common sense truth to this idea: Even before social media, we only framed photos of the good times and successes. It’s not nefarious or mani

There’s a kernel of common sense truth to this idea: Even before social media, we only framed photos of the good times and successes. It’s not nefarious or manipulative. It’s just the nature of sharing the good times. However, I feel like I’ve been seeing this idea abused more lately to try to normalize problem behaviors or dysfunctions. To extend your example: If someone sees photos of other people’s tidy houses on social media and their immediate reaction is to convince themselves that those houses are actually very messy and disorganized behind the scenes, they could be projecting their own issues with cleanliness and disorganization on to others. It’s much easier to overlook our own problems when we normalize them by projecting them on to everyone else. While it is true that social media isn’t a perfect representation of people’a normal daily lives, it was never intended to be. If someone is misunderstanding social media (or a resume) as a 100% snapshot of people’s lives, that needs to be corrected. However, I think it’s also a problem if someone’s only coping mechanism is to imagine the opposite scenarios and project it on to that person. The only lasting solution, in my opinion, is to learn how to be comfortable with yourself, on your own, without comparing to others.