For the last year, my friend Gracie has been deactivating and reactivating her Instagram every few months. She says that some days, she will have bouts of anxiety before posting a single picture worrying about whether it’s good enough.

Unfortunately, content creation is her main hustle so she needs social media. What do you do when it becomes a double-edged sword? With Covid-19 confining us to social media, I’m sure her fears are not alien. Here are tips to survive social media when it’s glitter on all profiles except yours.

You would feel less strongly about the things you see on social media if you remembered that people only show you the things they want you to see. You, as well. You don’t post all the photos you take now, do you?

And for a lot of people, social media is a means to an end. Sometimes hiring a wardrobe full of clothes, booking a high-end location for an hour, and tagging a bomb photographer along is what it takes to land that product endorsement gig. Don’t believe everything you see.

You may not be the one flossing on Thursday afternoon but that you’re still here means you have something to be grateful for.

If you look at your life and you still feel like you got the short end of the stick, try spending a little time volunteering. Up close and candid interaction with the life of someone who has much less than you will jolt you into remembering the days you prayed for the things you have now.

There’s a chance that you’re feeling inferior to others online because you are looking at social media as a place to show off or sell yourself. You may be upset because others look like they are doing this better than you.

How about going back to the roots? You know, using social media to meet and get to know other people as was originally intended? You can’t compete about who is meeting other people better.

When all is said and done, your social media timeline is your space. If someone is bringing vibes that are making you question how you feel about your life, block them.

Also, if you can’ look at someone’s photographs and videos without feeling bad about your life, it’s time to take a break from social media. If content from that one socialite gets to your nerve, unfollow them. If social media is getting to your nerves entirely, unplug.

It’s easy to get carried away with all the smiling pictures of happy people on vacation, beautiful babies, and fancy locations. It’s easy to begin thinking of social media as a measure of happiness. It isn’t. It shouldn’t be.

Decide what makes you happy and strive for it. This way, when you see someone’s flashy lifestyle on Instagram, you will think of their life as different from yours, not better.

Read: How To Block A Co-worker