It sets up an unspoken set of expectations in our hearts that, unless your life is YouTube-worthy, your life is stupid. It’s boring. (Why else would anxiety and depression—and envy—rise in direct proportion to one’s consumption of social media? Because we’re comparing our lives to what’s online.) Creeping in is the message that if your life is going to measure up and be wonderful, it has to be fantastic. Men used to get on bended knee to propose to their beloved; nowadays you’re a loser unless you do it skydiving or kayaking over waterfalls.
