I read an article here about the envy effect of Instagram. Honestly, I never even knew that this Instagram envy existed, but I'm not surprised to find out it does.
I agree with the article for the most part, but there are some things that I feel needs to be said. Hence, this post.
It's okay to be envious. Envy is a basic, natural emotion. And it's good that you experience envy because (1) it shows that you are still in touch with this far-from-ideal reality, and (2) it shows you what you need/want in your life. It means that you are not living in your own perfect world but grounded in reality that there are things that you need/want that still don't have until now.
Typically, you don't just get envious randomly. You get envious of some thing because that thing is one of your wants and/or needs. So in a way, your envy is your compass to what you want/need. This realization is always the first step to get yourself out of the gutters that is envy.
Don't force yourself to believe that you're not envious when you know deep down inside you are, because they taught you in school that it's one of the deadly sins. You're just lying to yourself and, last time I checked, lying is a sin as well.
Is it wrong to feel envy? Yes and no. And that's true for any other emotion. Feeling it the first time is okay. That's an immediate reflexive response to something to which you do not have control. It's how you handle your emotions and actions afterwards that determines whether you are right or wrong to feel this way.
This brings me to my second point: you should consciously choose how to handle your envy. Especially when you find yourself always feeling bad for the good fortune of others. The so-called crab mentality. (Poor crabs. Did you know that crabs don't pull each other down? They actually lift each other up!)
You see in Instagram a picture of your friend in the Eiffel tower. You feel envious. What do you do? (A) Get stuck in your envy and hate this friend for the rest of your life! (B) Stop following this friend. (C) Convince your friend to read the article to convince him/her to stop Instagramming his/her life. (D) Be happy for your friend and be inspired to reach similar or same goal.
In either case, YOU control what happens next after you feel envious. You can say "I want the same blessing that happened to him to happen to me!" Or you can stay mired in your envy and think "He doesn't deserve to be happy! Life is not fair!" At the end of the day, it is your choice.
The way I see it though, some people just choose not to make any move to feel better, not because they choose to do so, but rather because they didn't know that they have a choice. That it is their choice to be positive or continue to be negative. That they just let themselves wallow in that envy over and over until it consumes them, because they didn't know they have a choice. In this case, not doing anything to move out of the envious state is a choice in itself that leads to continuous, endless cycle of misery.
It's a rather sad and frankly an irresponsible way of living.
Remember, you cannot always control others. But you can always control YOU.
Choose to be happy. But then again, the choice is yours. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment