Today my sister gets married, and I’ll be emceeing the reception. So many of my friends are getting married, or have recently gotten married that it seems like it’s the socially expected thing to do. From my social psychology studies, I’ve learned that all of us engage in what’s called social comparison. According to the social comparison theory, we’re always comparing our own situation and status to that of others, in order to gauge how well (or not so well) we’re doing in life. Such comparison is unavoidable and happens naturally. Healthy individuals are able to accurately gauge their own situation; whereas, unhealthy minds seemingly become frustrated and down when they cannot accept their own situation in comparison to others. Often such people don’t actually realize how good they have it, and are blind to the fact that they still have good lives – they have food, shelter, friends… whereas millions of people around the world go hungry and starve every single day.
