The feed, the neighbours, the highlight reel

You close the laptop and the comparing keeps going. A neighbour's new car sits in the drive. The family group chat is all somebody's promotion, somebody's kitchen reno, somebody's kid who made the team. You open the phone for two minutes and scroll past a wedding, a beach, a thriving little business, all of it the polished two percent that anyone chooses to post. By the time you set it down, your own ordinary evening feels like it's losing to people who aren't even in the room.

Seneca saw how the crowd's verdict pulls us off course: "matters do not stand so well with mankind that the majority should prefer the better course: the more people do a thing the worse it is likely to be" (Of a Happy Life 2, Stewart). The fact that everyone seems to want a thing — the bigger house, the visible upgrade, the loud version of a good life — is no proof it's worth wanting. Often it's the reverse.

This is the week's move off the clock. The feed isn't reality. It's everyone's trophy shelf, with the invoice cropped out.