Glossary/Mental Health & Wellbeing/Social Comparison

what is social comparison on social media

What is Social Comparison?

Social comparison is the tendency to evaluate ourselves by comparing to others. On social media, this is amplified because platforms predominantly display highlight reels — the most attractive, successful, and exciting moments of other people's lives — creating an unrepresentative standard that most people feel they fall short of.

Why It Matters for Families

Research consistently links upward social comparison on social media (comparing yourself to people who seem better off) with lower self-esteem, increased anxiety, and depression — particularly in teenage girls. Awareness of the mechanism doesn't fully protect against it, but it helps.

Warning Signs to Watch For

  • 1Frequently comments on how others' lives look better or more exciting than their own
  • 2Seems deflated or anxious after spending time on social media
  • 3Becomes preoccupied with likes, comments, and follower counts
  • 4Expresses that they're not as attractive, popular, or successful as peers

What You Can Do

Help your child curate their feed — unfollow or mute accounts that consistently trigger negative comparisons. Discuss the gap between social media presentation and reality. A media literacy conversation about how photos are edited, filtered, and selectively chosen can reduce their impact. Look for platforms designed to reduce comparison culture.

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Related Terms

Body Image Issues
Body image issues refer to negative, distorted, or obsessive thoughts about one's physical appearance. Social media exposure to heavily filtered, idealized images of bodies has been linked to increased body dissatisfaction, disordered eating behaviors, and eating disorders — particularly among teenage girls, though boys are increasingly affected.
Social Media & Mental Health
The relationship between social media use and adolescent mental health is one of the most studied topics in contemporary psychology. Research shows associations between heavy social media use and increased anxiety, depression, loneliness, and sleep disruption — particularly for teens who use it passively (scrolling) rather than actively (creating, connecting).
Doomscrolling
Doomscrolling is the compulsive consumption of negative news and distressing content online — continuing to scroll even when the content is making you feel worse. It's driven by a combination of anxiety, the algorithm's tendency to surface engaging (often negative) content, and the variable reward mechanism that makes social feeds hard to put down.
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, is the anxious feeling that others are having rewarding experiences you're excluded from. Social media amplifies FOMO by providing a constant feed of other people's highlight reels — parties, trips, social gatherings — curated to appear more frequent and more fun than they actually are.
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