The highlight reel

A little truth about the videos on YouTube and TikTok.

The one rule If it makes me feel bad about myself, it is time to put it down and go do something real.

You are seeing their best thirty seconds

When someone posts a video, they pick their best moment. They might film it ten times, add music and filters, and cut out all the boring and bad parts. You are seeing their best thirty seconds, not their whole day.

Nobody posts the part where they got in trouble, felt lonely, or had a bad hair day.

It is also their job

Many of the people you watch get paid when you watch. So they make their lives look exciting, expensive and perfect, to keep you clicking. The new toys, the big houses and the crazy trips are often sponsored, borrowed or staged.

That does not make them bad people. It does mean you are watching an advertisement that was built not to look like one. Somebody is at work in that video, and it is not the camera.

The apps are designed to keep you scrolling

They are built to show you one more video, then another. That is why it can be hard to stop, and why you might feel tired or grumpy afterwards.

That is not your fault. It is how the app works. Very clever, very well-paid people spent years making sure there is never a good place to stop. Noticing that is most of the way to beating it.

Do not race your whole life against someone’s best moment

If you feel like you are not as cool, rich, talented or happy as somebody online, remember what you are actually comparing: your real, everyday life, with all of it showing, against their edited highlight.

That is not a fair race. It was never meant to be a fair race.

What actually matters

None of this shows up in a video, and all of it is the real measure of a life:

• How you treat people Especially the ones who cannot do anything for you.
• What you are learning Including the parts you are still bad at.
• The things you are working hard at Progress is slow and unphotogenic. It still counts.
• The people who love you They were there before the first video and will be there after the last.

You do not need likes or views to be valuable. You were valuable before anybody was counting.

So, again If it makes me feel bad about myself, it is time to put it down and go do something real.

Next: where other people can reach you →

This page is maintained by the Sioux Falls South Dakota Stake. YouTube and TikTok are not ours and are not connected with this site. This is not an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.