Connor Beaton argues that many men tie their self-worth to external standards of productivity—how much they earn, build, or accomplish—and that this cultural expectation, amplified by social media, fosters constant comparison with other men and feelings of inadequacy.
If you really want to understand what it's like to be a man, link your value to external standards of productivity. So imagine linking your whole sense of value, your whole sense of self worth onto what you do and how well you can do it, how much you can produce, how much you can build, how much you can accomplish, and then how well you can do those things. Because in our culture, post industrial age, a lot of a man's value and a lot of a man's worth was inextricably linked to how much can you earn, how much can you build so that you can provide that for your family. And this kind of constant comparison that emerges in comparing yourself to the men and the people that are around you, how much are you earning, how much are you doing in comparison to them? What I think is interesting is that social media has made it very easy for men to go online and see examples of other guys that are doing more than them and have the perception that they have a higher sense of value.
How to Raise Strong, Unshakable Boys in Today's Culture, with Dr. Shefali Tsabary
