You’re comparing yourself to a highlight reel

91% of young Ukrainians live in a state of abnormal stress. And it’s not just that everything around is difficult. It’s that everyone around shows how easy they have it.

The World Happiness Report 2026 confirmed the intuitive: the more time a person spends on social media, the lower their life satisfaction. And it’s not the magic of algorithms. It’s the math of comparison—you compare your draft to someone else’s final version and somehow wonder why you’re losing.

Someone else’s highlight vs. your Monday

8:30 AM. You haven’t made coffee yet, your hair is sticking out in three directions, in your head—a work deadline you’ve been putting off for the third day. You open Instagram. And there: someone’s running a marathon in Barcelona, someone launched a startup, someone posted a selfie with a fresh juice on a terrace in Lisbon.

You’re comparing your regular Tuesday to their best moment from the last three months. And you lose. Every. Single. Time.

This isn’t your weakness. This is by design. The feed is constructed to show you 200 peaks of other people’s lives per day—and not a single valley. And the brain, which evolved in a tribe of 50 people, doesn’t understand that these 200 aren’t your neighbors. It perceives them as a reference. As the norm. And concludes: you’re falling behind.

Social media doesn’t depict life—it edits it

Stories aren’t a documentary. They’re a trailer. And a trailer where even crappy moments are presented with irony and good lighting.

No one films a story of silently staring at the wall at 3 AM. No one posts their doubts about relationships, money, body, career choice. No one will show how they spent 15 minutes fixing a caption because they were afraid of seeming stupid. No one will tell you they bought that same jacket on credit and are now thinking about returning it.

You watch 200 filtered trailers a day and wonder why your real movie seems so boring. But it’s not boring. It just doesn’t have an editor.

What to actually do about it (without the boring “delete Instagram”)

The advice “delete social media” is like “don’t worry” from a therapist. Technically correct, practically—pointless. Here’s what actually works:

• Instead of “who”—ask “what.” When you catch yourself feeling envious, don’t ask “what’s wrong with her that she succeeded?” Ask “what do I actually need right now?” Often the answer isn’t a trip to Lisbon, but getting some sleep.
• Unfollow 10 accounts that make you feel worse. Not today. Right now. What you spend your attention on shapes your mood and your reality.
• Set a timer for 15 minutes—not “just one more minute.” “Just one more minute” ends 47 minutes later with a wasted morning and guilt on top.
• Ask yourself: is this my dream—or do I want it because I saw it? Half of your desires aren’t yours. They’re borrowed from other people’s stories and YouTube recommendations.
• Write one sentence in your notes every morning: “What do I actually want today?” Before you open the feed. It’s free and it changes your day.

POHUY as an answer

POHUY isn’t “give up on everything.” It’s a filter. It’s an internal “unsubscribe” from everything that isn’t yours: other people’s success criteria, other people’s dreams, other people’s beauty standards, other people’s pace of life.

You’re not obligated to react to every other person’s success. Not obligated to want what the like-economy wants. Not obligated to prove that you’re also “doing great”—because no one’s keeping score except you.

Strength isn’t about outrunning everyone in someone else’s race. Strength is choosing not to run at all. Choosing peace where others lose themselves. Choosing to save your energy for what’s truly yours—instead of giving it away to another comparison with someone’s filtered Monday.

You’re not worse. You’re just not a highlight reel.

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POHUY—everything except what truly matters to you.