Direct answer
The need to prove yourself online appears when your worth starts depending on external confirmation. This is what I call The Surrender of Power: the moment when other people's validation begins to determine how much you feel you are worth. As long as recognition comes from outside, it will never be enough, because it has to be renewed with every post.
What is really happening
Social media did not create this need. It only found a new place for it. Autopromotion used to happen at business dinners and strategic coffees. Today it wears filters, hashtags and inspirational quotes. The setting changed, the script is the same: the wish to be seen, even at your own expense.
Why it is never enough
When recognition lives outside of you, each post becomes a small piece of evidence. And evidence expires. Yesterday's reach does not sustain today's confidence. That is why so many people surrounded by likes still feel empty: the fuel keeps running out.
The external is easier. Following trends, using hooks, commenting the obvious. But does it bring any fulfillment?
The shift that changes everything
The way out is not to abandon social media. It is to move where your worth comes from. When you recognize who you are without continually depending on others' confirmation, the post stops being proof and returns to being expression. This is what I call Ser Poder: a potency that does not vanish when the numbers drop. You keep posting, but the number no longer decides who you are.