Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

by Vivek H. Murthy

I felt inspired 25 percent of the time and inadequate 100 percent of the time. As one friend put it, checking your social media feed is like comparing everyone’s best days to your average days—and you always come up short. I noticed something else that disturbed me. I originally began posting on social media to share experiences and reflections with friends. But soon I found myself preoccupied with how many people would like, comment, and share my content. I remember posting a reflection on 9/11 during one of the anniversaries and feeling the genuine emotion that I’d poured into the piece dissolving as I kept checking to see if people liked the post. It turned an authentic act of expression into a hollow exercise. Chasing validation like that made me feel bad about myself.