Blogs, social media, and "Iceberg bias"

"I only share a deliberate projection of who I am." [Source]

I remember a time, soon after high school, when my sister worked at a clothing store in the mall with my then-girlfriend. My sister shared some personal details that I wasn't comfortable with (and heard about from my girlfriend), and I felt embarrased.

The wonderful thing about social media in this day and age is that such situations are more easily hidden, like the 90% of an iceberg one does not see.

So it's unwise for anyone to compare their life to someone else's. Vacation pictures are wonderful, but people generally don't post their failure or embarrassments online.

Those things -- just as much as our triumphs -- show us what kind of people we really are.