I avoid mindlessly scrolling through social media feeds as much as possible. As part of my work I speak and write about wellness, resilience, burnoutand mental health , I read the studies that show that time on social media feeds increases depression and envy and decreases well-being.
This motivates me to use social media purposefully, specifically choosing what I will look at and keeping it to a minimum. I almost always regret it when I let my guard down and start scrolling. I posted about the comparison trap the other day on Facebook, and a senior citizen posted a comment that made my heart ache:.
Not in my budget, ever. And these posts never stop. I stopped posting pictures from my vacations years ago. Share those, perhaps, with a limited audience, maybe close family and friends who really want to see them. But…ask yourself first if they really want to see them. Before you show anything to anyone, review what you know about their life. Maybe they dream of going to the tropics but have never had and may never have the opportunity. In addition to cultivating awareness with respect to inadvertently or advertently provoking comparison and therefore stealing the joy of others, become a student of how you squander your own contentedness by getting sucked into the comparison trap.
Start noticing the situations that cause you to play the comparison game. What about other circumstances? Is there a certain person who is constantly bragging about this or that, or asks you questions about your life that are designed to make you feel inferior? Are there certain activities, such as strolling through a high-end shopping mall, or driving through an expensive neighborhood, that frequently make you feel discontented with your life when you were feeling just fine about your life, an hour before?
Make a list of who and what you frequently envy or compare yourself to. Resolve to catch yourself next time. Test Your Vocabulary. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
Love words? Need even more definitions? Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different. Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'? How 'literally' can mean "figuratively". Meaningful participation should take place in all stages of decision-making: during development, implementation and evaluation. Most programs that are developed for young people are not developed by young people. This limits the effectiveness of the program.
The Flower of Participation is a tool that uses the metaphor of a blooming flower to describe the different forms of youth participation and how it can grow and flourish in meaningful ways. Meaningful Youth Participation MYP means that young people can participate on equal terms with adults, or work independently, in organizations and in all stages of programming and policy-making: design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
But for this to happen, mechanisms must be in place that allow young people to have an active role, in which their voice is heard and respected. If participation of young people is truly meaningful, it benefits the young people, the program, policy or organization, and society as a whole. The Flower of Participation is a tool that uses the metaphor of a blooming flower to describe how MYP can grow and flourish.
It can be used to distinguish between different forms of youth participation and explore whether they are meaningful or not. The tool describes the core elements of MYP the roots , the different forms of MYP the leaves and the petals of the flower , non-meaningful forms of youth participation the insects and the preconditions of MYP the water and the sun.
All these different aspects of MYP are discussed below. The roots of a flower are essential to allow a flower to survive and flourish. They enable the flower to retrieve water and nutrients from the soil and to keep itself upright. When a flower has more and stronger roots, the stronger its foundation will be. This metaphor also applies to MYP.
The core elements of MYP are:. There are different forms of youth participation. Some are meaningful, some are not. In general, participation is more meaningful when the core elements are in place. The Flower of Participation describes two forms of Non-Meaningful Youth Participation the insects and six forms of Meaningful Youth Participation the leaves and the petals. Young people may be involved in programs, activities or organizations, however, their participation may not be considered meaningful, because some of the core elements are missing.
It is important to distinguish between MYP and non-MYP, because it is often the case that young people participate in a program, activity or organization, but in ways that are dismissing their voice and freedom of choice, and does not give them any decision-making power, responsibility or information.
Many people think that simply involving young people means that they are meaningfully participating. These forms of non-MYP can make it seem like young people are participating meaningfully, when in fact they are only superficially included. There are two forms of non-MYP. Manipulation We speak of manipulation when young people are used to support a cause. Young people are used as decoration, to make the cause seem more attractive.
Tokenism Tokenism is the other form of youth participation that is not meaningful. In this case, young people are invited to participate, but only in a superficial manner because in reality, these young people do not have a voice and their opinions are not listened to or respected.
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