Great read, Jonathan! "View full article" hyperlink is broken but "Continue reading..." works fine. I had been a victim of comparison for many years and I always came up short in the comparison. When I realized and accepted that I am a child of God, and God makes no junk (in spite of my own self-perceptions), acceptance of myself began to get easier. It's really quite simple... if I compare myself to others as a means of self-deprecation, I am judging God's handy work and therefore think I know better than God. Quite the recipe for perpetual misery. That is different than comparing oneself to another in the interest of self-improvement. For example I could compare myself to Pastor Jonathan (ha ha couldn't resist) and say "I wish I had his outlook on people and things". Well golly gee, maybe the lesson is if I want what Pastor Jonathan has, then I need to to what Pastor Jonathan does. Or I might compare myself to another dude who is more athletic. Okay, then eat better and work out at the gym, that's what he did. Envy and jealousy are probably the biggest character defects around and cause a lot of self-made misery. Even today I catch myself upon entering retirement comparing my financial assets to those of others. Instead, I need to be grateful for what the Lord provided for me and learn to work with what I have. So today I still can get caught up in the comparison trap. But the difference is it is relatively short-lived and I don't wallow in self-pity over it. Social media is indeed a big radiating antenna of "gee, look at me" and adolescents in that tough self-awareness phase of their lives are tuned to receive that information. IMO how they use it depends on the foundation they have been given as children by their parents. A path to self-acceptance begins with how we as adults interact with our children or those children around us. A child's self-esteem can be tied directly to how we respond to their need for attention.