Hi guys, my name is Lauren Curtis. I've been on social media since 2011 and since then I've grown a following of over 7 million people across my platforms. And I have learnt a lot along the way. The Mental Makeover podcast shares real, very honest advice on all things happiness, body image, self-love, relationships, spirituality and reaching your goals.

I want to start today's episode off with a question, and that question is, do you think

social media has had a positive or negative effect on your life? My answer to that question

is split pretty evenly down the middle. Obviously,

I am where I am now because of social media and I owe so much to it, but on the other hand,

there are some serious downsides and it has seriously affected my life and my mental health in many ways.

So it's always a bit of a tough one for me to talk about because I owe so much to it,

but then I also blame so much on it as well. And I think in general, most people's response

would be that they had a better quality of life before social media was introduced.

And I think there's one main reason for that, and that is that it breeds the idea that

our lives aren't as good as other people's. It's comparison. It's comparison between where you're

at now with your life or where you're financially at, how many friends you've got, how pretty

you are, what weight you're at, how many job opportunities you've got, how many places you've

traveled, how many this, how many that, compared to all these other people that seem to have

accomplished so much more than you

and seen so much more of the world and have so much money and are younger and have

accomplished more and are trim or toned or prettier or it's like we always had those thoughts before social media came around. It just wasn't

as concentrated and it's like shoved in our faces. But it's also kind of strange because it's not

really shoved in our faces because we choose to see it every day. It's like a bit of a sick

twisted relationship. Like, you know you

shouldn't be with this person, but, or this thing, or this app, this app, but you're kind of

addicted to it. Like, it's, you know, it's bad for you, but you can't help but want to stay. I mean,

...