Mandy Oaklander | October 24, 2026

Don't feel bad if scrolling through social media sometimes makes you feel, well, bad. Even psychiatrists from Harvard Medical School struggle with it.

Just ask Dr. Ashwini Nadkarni, one such psychiatrist who wrote a new essay for TIME about how social comparison is so much more pervasive now than it used to be.

TODAY’S TOPICS

The sneaky threat of social comparison
A dentist’s Halloween setup
An experimental melanoma vaccine’s success

SATURDAY READ

Our brains weren’t built for this much comparison

By Dr. Ashwini Nadkarni

Deagreez—Getty Images

More than 20? Or less than 75? As I scan my feedback on a recent social media post, my brain just can’t seem to help registering the number of “likes.” I’m not alone.

Under a recent settlement that Meta recently reached with states, Facebook and Instagram are about to look different for minors Among the new protections, one seemingly modest change caught my eye. By default, users under 18 will no longer be able to see likes and other reactions in response to their posts or those of others. The reforms are designed for children and teenagers, but touch on a psychological phenomenon just as relevant to adults. As a psychiatrist, I found myself wondering: Why does that little number beneath your post matter so much?

The answer has less to do with social media and more to do with an ancient human tendency: social comparison.

Read the full essay here.

AT HOME WITH AN EXPERT

Fangs for the reminder

The skeletons at Dr. Lilya Horowitz’s home have a few things to get off their chests. “Plaque happens,” reads one sign. Another decoration offers relationship advice with a dental twist: “Ghost your ex, not your dentist.” Horowitz, founder and CEO of Domino Dental in New York, has been decorating for Halloween for about five years, brainstorming new ideas each fall. The playful setup reflects her approach to the holiday: Enjoy yourself, and keep taking care of your teeth the rest of the year.

Trick-or-treaters get candy—but also little bags with toothbrushes, toothpaste, and kid-friendly floss picks. Horowitz hopes the novelty gives kids something to look forward to when it’s time to brush. “Kids always like to have something new, even if it’s a toothbrush and toothpaste,” she says. And yes, the dentist enjoys Halloween sweets herself. Her seasonal favorite? Candy corn. “I’ll only have it around Halloween time,” she says. —Angela Haupt

WHAT WE’RE READING

An experimental personalized cancer vaccine lowered melanoma recurrence by 42%, Alice Park reports for TIME.
AI-augmented facial analysis could become a tool for doctors to use to evaluate a cancer patient’s chances for survival, Jacqueline Howard reports for CNN.
What can medieval teeth reveal about environmental health? Gabby Shell at Smithsonian explores surprising evidence that lead poisoning was devastating some English communities centuries before the Industrial Revolution.

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