Everybody has the perfect life according to social media. Through carefully curated content, we present the ideal but often distorted version of ourselves and then compare our real lives to another’s highlights reel. There is increasing evidence to suggest that this effect can have profound negative consequences on mental health, including increased likelihood for anxiety and depression. A study at the University of Houston, for example, found that Facebook usage was correlated with more depressive symptoms. In reality, everyone is struggling with something, but since this rarely makes it into our online representations, we fall prey to social comparison and suffer from it.

To tackle the perception of perfection and the pressures that this misleading phenomenon can cause, we asked students to fill out a board with their answer to what their greatest struggle of the week was. It was surprisingly difficult for many to open up, an observation that contrasts sharply with the much heavier statements of mental illness and suffering that are routinely posted on the anonymous Facebook page NYUAD Confessions. Consequently, the results are varied, but all strongly indicate a rarely acknowledged truth: it’s okay to struggle with something — we all do.

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