Totally, yes. Just thought about how badly I wanted to be one of the cool kids in school. Failed terribly in doing that, and I also know how terrible I felt about that.

That's why I'm wondering when the whole "seeking for appreciation"-thing has moved from real life to Instagram (kind of), are there no bad feelings, feelings of rejection and failure involved, when my new post doesn't get the likes I'm looking for?

The big difference is opportunity time. Previously you had occasional opportunities to impress your peers and evaluate their lives against yours giving you gaps to work between. Those gaps now no longer exist. The information and comparison is 24/7 and real time. I think comparisons to previous generations as being equal in goals vastly over simplifies vast differences in the landscape they operate in.

> It’s just more visible to adults now

Its always been visible to adults and has been a perennial complaint of adults about the youth.