Seeding Innovation

6Imposter Syndrome and “Not Enough-ness”

“Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free.”

—Eckhart Tolle

WHEN I SAT down with my friend Jessica Yellin, who was the chief White House correspondent at CNN, I was again reminded of how many invisible hands are at play in the market and how the media influences not only how we feel about ourselves but also what we learn and even what we do.

Have you ever spent an hour scrolling on Instagram only to realize that you feel absolutely terrible after doing it? I call it the “not enough-ness syndrome.” There's a reason for it.

But first, I want to share a little bit of data about these platforms because of how relevant they are for business.

A staggering 94% of consumers engage with some sort of social platform at least monthly—a sign of the huge opportunities present for brands in this space. The average consumer also spends 37% of their time online on social media, making it a good place to reach a large audience of people.

On top of this, more are turning to social media to find products—the number who find out about new brands and products through social media advertising has grown 9% since Q1 2020. It was only being beaten by ads on music streaming services by one percentage point.

Negativity Bias in Your Brain

According to Tom Casey (2022), “Engagement is the currency of social media platforms, and driving engagement involves recommending content and users of interest. Recommender systems use data, computing ...