I used the webapp version to browse, never registered. I find seeing photos of others, makes me jealous and self conscious, not saying bad about myself, just that I feel jealous of what features others have. Not healthy mindset for sure. I like it, more conversation focused, not “look what I have”. Congrats to mastodon for being better community wise over fb or twitter.
Oh, yeah I feel you. Those sites are insecurity generators because people only post when they’re at their best. They can foster creepy parasocial relationships too.
Yeah, i’ve noticed they look the best always. It’s not authentic, though some will type the truth of how they feel. I don’t see it in photos very much on socials, outside of dating apps.
The word “insecurity” is strange to me. i see it thrown around a bit, yet find it doesn’t make sense, when i think of what it means. “free from harm” or “afforded safety”. Seeing others, doesn’t cause me harm or loss of safety, just a sort of " body image issue", which makes more since. when i think of security, i think of a military base or defenses against imperialism etc, when i think of security. Hope that makes sense.
I get what you mean, sometimes words don’t make sense to me either. According to etymonline the word secure comes from Latin securus. se- meaning “free from” and cura meaning “care.” It originally meant “without care or fear, quiet, easy” or “careless, reckless, overconfident.”
So I guess we can understand “insecure” as meaning “fearful, disquiet, uneasy.” Or maybe “cares too much, underconfident.”