How do social media affect gratitude culture?
Imagine you are working to complete a task for a friend who politely asked for your help. You did not take the job for money nor did you take it for friendship, you simply accepted to do the favor because you love doing the same task because you are passionate about it. Now after the completion of the job you receive a big bundle of gratitude for doing him a favor. The effort you put into doing the task is appreciated and your friend is very thankful and is happy that you helped. Because of the appreciation you received, because of the thankfulness, you received, wouldn’t you be ready to help this same friend later in life with a much bigger problem? If you are not someone who is a highly egocentric person I bet your answer is “I certainly would”. Well, life is the same, the more you appreciate what life gives you, the more you present gratitude towards life, the more you will receive.
We can see how drastic changes have come upon every life through technological advancement, how social media have gone up the hierarchy and have impacted everyone. The impact may not be necessarily bad, there are good exposures of social media but it certainly has affected the gratitude culture among people. Open up your social media accounts and check who you have been following for the last 3 4 years, I bet there are a lot of influencers you follow, influencers who go out on vacations, drive luxury cars, wear expensive apparel, influencers who are in perfect shape. I do follow a lot of influencers too, there is a lot to learn from them. Following them and learning from them is beneficial but what degrades the gratitude culture is the comparisons we make. Social media has exposed us to the lives of other people, we get to see where others are going for a vacation, what others are eating, what others are doing for fun, and many more, basically we get to see the good and fun parts of everyone’s life we follow on social media like, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and many more. The same exposure we get has compressed the gratitude culture because we tend to compare our life with the life of others we see on our mobile phones. Social media itself doesn’t affect the gratitude culture but gives out space for comparison which automatically pushes us towards wanting more and more.
Gratitude itself is an act of being thankful for what we have, where we are and how we are but the comparison phenomena only build up anxiety and we then start lamenting over what we don’t have, and what we have to achieve. When we compare and lament over such things we start to focus our energies towards others which in turn leads to no improvement on our side. Comparing lifestyles and having a desire to achieve what others have achieved is one of the leading causes of mental illness and is the result of degraded gratitude culture. Check out the posts, hit the like button maybe learn something, and scroll down, what is there to get so competitive with, they are living their lives and are posting the best of their moments. Comparing your lifestyle and achievement with others won’t get you there, in fact, it induces anxiety leading to mental disturbance. It’s not the fault of platforms, but it is our mentality that forces us to compare and get sad about it. Everybody is living their own life, no path of two individuals are same, everybody walks and experiences different scenarios, this being the case comparison is a useless energy-draining act. The same comparison culture has caused degradation in gratitude culture and has been stopping us from appreciating life, the opportunities, and the love provided by it. Ultimately the degrading gratitude culture has bounded us within the comfort zone that has no more opportunities to provide.
From now onwards every time you see someone posting the best of their moment and your thought drives towards “Man, they are enjoying a lot, I wish I was there, I wish…..” stop yourself there and correct your thought with “That seems fun, they are living their best moments and so am I”, hit the like button and scroll on. One simple change in your self-talk will avoid you to compare your lifestyles and be happy about where you are. Every day try to be grateful for the things you have, be grateful for the food you eat, for the air you breathe, for your family and your friends, there are tons of things to be grateful about. Practicing gratitude every day will bring out a positive sense of energy and will present you with many opportunities that you can grasp and take steps towards building your dream.
There is nothing wrong with the social media platforms, our mentality towards accepting what and rejecting what has caused all the problems. Choosing to compare and lament over not having achieved what others have achieved is our mentality and that mentality can be simply reduced to nil when we become grateful for what we have and believe in ourselves. Social media surely has created more exposure which in turn has forced our mentality towards comparison, but ultimately it depends upon us what to filter out and filter in. Stop comparing, live your life, walk your path, and get started with that gratitude culture.
