Suppose you have 52 friends who all go on vacation one week out of the year. Every week you will compare yourself to whichever one who is posting their fabulous vacation photos. This doesn't mean you're having a worse life or missing out, you're completely average. You just only notice the 51 comparisons in that direction and don't notice the 51 comparisons during your own vacation week.
Maybe because I was aware of what you are saying, that everyone shares their best experiences and moments, and even those in an inflated way and on top of this, FB will find those and make those posts more popular (because people will react to them more strongly). Though thinking about it, I never had this feeling when I've learned about this IRL while I knew some people actually can get envy (i.e. feel bad) when they hear others are doing good or have fun even if they were 100% OK with their situation before hearing that.
(Not that I think everyone would agree with the infinite silence part.)
I think Russell still paints a valid point, however you're right to think that perspectives were not uniform in the past, nor are they uniform now. I do believe, however, statistical awareness does add a bit more weight to Russell's perspective.
There's a common saying, "why be a big fish in a small pond?" It's used mostly to critique an idea that you should reach for something more - competing in a bigger city or bigger stage to better yourself.
Now, the 'pond' is no longer tied to where you live - it follows you everyday on YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, everywhere.
As I think is argued by Russell and everdrive, the pond has become the full connected world and 'opting out' is hard to do... making the regional experts that provide beauty to smaller communities inferior to the common man who sees greatness on the inter webs scrolling through ads.
What's probably worse, I imagine this connection has removed a few potential regional experts drive to spend the hard time working and learning. I fear many of these people could have become one of the real 'greats' - had they retained the little glimmer of 'unfounded confidence' that is washed away with the constant stimulus of other greats.
Finally, I'm not saying all is lost... some thrive in this and view stimuli of the greats as inspirational... but it's definitely not the same skillset that previous generations used to thrive.
When I was a kid, the neighbor who knew something about Ham radio was a brilliant expert, the neighbor who made bread was an exceptional baker, and the guy down the street who could paint portraits was a talented artist. Now, compared to all the talents in the world, they were all just competent at best, or even mediocre. In those days, the comparison wasn't visible. Now it's in everyone's face 24x7.
It doesn't mean you can't enjoy the activities. But if you're vested in being the best or even notable, you're now competing on a global scale rather than just your town.
> It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the activities. But if you’re vested in being the best or even notable, you’re now competing on a global scale rather than just your town.
So true, and all this becomes sinister when you begin to realize that ‘enjoyment’ comes in many flavors - and lot of enjoyment comes from sharing with others. So when other people say (not you I don’t think), “well you can do X just for the love of doing X,” they miss out on is the response, ‘well yeah, but I want to share it with you, too!’
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Russell puts it better, of course:
http://bactra.org/Russell/on_youthful_cynicism.html
"Moreover many kinds of beauty require that a man should take himself more seriously than is possible for an intelligent modern. A prominent citizen in a small city State, such as Athens or Florence, could without difficulty feel himself important. The earth was the center of the Universe, man was the purpose of creation, his own city showed man at his best, and he himself was among the best of his own city. In such circumstances Æschylus or Dante could take his own joys or sorrows seriously. He could feel that the emotions of the individual matter, and that tragic occurrences deserve to be celebrated in immortal verse. But the modern man, when misfortune assails him, is conscious of himself as a unit in a statistical total; the past and the future stretch before him in a dreary procession of trivial defeats. Man himself appears as a somewhat ridiculous strutting animal, shouting and fussing during a brief interlude between infinite silences."
Any certainly, man's place in the bell curve is not the only problem here, but it is a prominent one, and one that existed before social media, and is almost certainly aggravated by the other problems of social media.