Who you are offline is the original. Everything online is a copy you edited.

The profile is a selection, and the selecting is the part that matters. Every post went through a filter: which photo, which words, what to leave out. The person at the bus stop with a bad haircut and an unresolved argument is the complete version, and the online one is an abridged edition approved by its own subject. Comparing yourself to anybody’s edition is comparing your whole life to their highlights.

Spend one hour this week on something that leaves no trace at all. Walk somewhere, talk to somebody, cook something badly, with nothing recorded. That hour counted exactly as much as the ones you posted.