First, people differentiate between the online world and the meatspace world.
Of course. But I'm not sure they are able to fully separate the two. Internet has some effect, right?
If I am the prettiest girl at school, I may be aware that Kim Kardashian's butt almost broke the internet and I (hopefully) realize that my butt does not have the same capabilities, but I am still the prettiest girl at my school.
True. And people will always enjoy benefits from being the biggest fish in their particular pond, whatever population defines that.
"Population" is different and here the relevant metric is closeness to you.
A person may believe they are in the 99th percentile by assuming the population they are in is representative of the global population. Even if this isn't true, there will be zero loss of self-esteem without sufficient spread of information, since said person may never become aware of the objective reality that they are in fact in, say, the bottom 20%.
Comparing yourself to people you meet every day is rather different from comparing yourself to pop star pictures on a screen.
Why?
Internet has some effect, right?
It certainly has, we are only discussing its magnitude.
Why?
For example, you interact with the former but you do not with the latter.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.