Teens often battle mental health issues. One overlooked factor is overcomparison.
According to a 2025 Pew Research report, roughly half of teens (48%) say social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age, up from 32% in 2022. According to a 2023 study published in the National Library of Medicine, teens who spent more time on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube reported feeling worse about themselves on those same days.
VOX ATL journalist Amani Jackson says,”[Social Media] kind of leads to just like a pipeline of you constantly comparing yourself, your achievements. Adding, “It makes you think, ‘Oh, I don’t have that,’ and it can mess with your self-esteem a lot.”
Researchers tracked 200 children ages 10 to 14 over two weeks, asking them to log their social media use and how they felt daily. The more kids compared themselves to others online — thinking everyone else had it better — the lower their mood and self-esteem dropped.
Malia Jolley, a rising sophomore at Howard University and VOX ATL journalist, says, “Comparison can be used for positive and negative outcomes.” Explaining, “When you see somebody doing better than you, it might put a negative seed in you, but it can also be some way of putting a stepping stone in your mind or making yourself want to do better for yourself.” Later adding, “it’s really about balance and not getting imposter syndrome.”
While a little competition here and there is good, many teens can take it too far and end up belittling each other.
According to a 2025 article titled, “Competitive youth sports culture leads to burnout and quitting for many in the U.S.,” published in Youth Today, “Nearly 70% of kids quit organized sports by age 13, and 45% quit specifically due to psychological burnout and low confidence.”
Coaches are among the most influential adults in teens’ lives, and it can be devastating for a player to have a bad experience with a coach. While this can be a personal issue, adults are normalizing it and calling it “all love.”
Research from Mission Prep Healthcare shows that “This normalization of, or failure to address, distress can increase mental health challenges in adolescents.”
One major pro it leads up to is improvement; comparing oneself to someone who has succeeded in a topic of interest can motivate teens to better themselves. One major con that isn’t talked about enough is the guilt that comparison leaves teens with when failure occurs.
Timothy Young, a teen living in Atlanta, said: “I would compare my cons to someone else’s pros to better myself.”
While comparison can have some positive effects, it has more negative effects on teens, especially on social media. Research from HHS.gov shows that (46%) of teens aged 13-17 report that social media makes them feel worse about their body image and confidence. Driven by constant exposure to idealized “fitspiration” posts and curated influencer lives, passive scrolling and comparison traps have led up to (95%) of youth to use platforms daily, often leading to cycles of self-esteem issues that are widely underreported.
Kevin Boyer, a former teacher of 27 years, stated that “Teens compare themselves to each other for the same reasons that all people do. It is ingrained into the fabric of society that success is measured by what the next person has achieved. Although subjective, it does speak to the larger issue at hand, which is at what price does individuality become the norm instead of the exception?”
