First of all, please excuse me for my poor English, I'm not a native one.
Actually, I'm a good looking guy in my early 30 with a varying height problem. Why varying? Simply because I'm not extremely short, and because it often depends on the context.
I'm about 174cm (5'8.5), officially measured by a doctor 5-6 years before at midday (I've a better posture from this time, doing lot of sport and stretching, so maybe one more cm now ?). I actually wear, most of the time, a 2cm (0.75in) 'little help' in my shoes pushing me to 176cm (5'9.3) and feel a lot better, and with a good posture, people often think I am about 177-178cm (5'10).
It depends on the context firstly because I'm from a family of short people (thanks God I'm the taller one!). My brother is only 168cm (5'6.1), my father 170cm (5'7), my sister 153cm (5'0.2) and my mother was 160cm (5'3). So in my young age, taller people (like my 187cm (6'2) brother in law) were an exception and I was not feeling any pain (I remember when I was a child I was even thinking, "I wish I will be 1m75 when I grow up"...).
Things changed when entering in high school. At this time I was about 172cm (7'7.75) I think, wearing super-flat shoes and with a bad posture, and most of the other guys appeared to me as some sort of a new powerful race of giants : most of them were more than 180cm (5'11) and sometimes even 190cm (6'3). It was a first painful feeling for me to be closer to girls than boys.
Two years after, I met my wife. My wife is of course perfect in every ways... 'but' she is 178cm (5'10.1), and from a fkg family of this new 'race of giants'. In this family (which I love, don't worry), girls are 174 (5'8.5), 176 (5'9.3) and 178cm (5'10.1), which is pretty big for girls (just imagine with their 5 to 8cm high heels...), and the men are between 183cm (6ft) to about 187 (6'2), every-one with super good posture. Even the old grandpa was a 185cm (6'1) super-muscular and good posture person. It was my second painful feeling, because I was not even at the same height of girls, and they were sometimes joking about it (gently, very gently, but you know...).
There were many other painful feeling from those two firsts. Young students at university, some trips in Denmark, Germany and Netherland (welcomed by some 175-180cm girls and a 195cm guy, ha-ha thank you), some situations like at the gym when you think you are building a powerful body until you compare with a giant who makes you look like a manlet...
Sometimes I'm close to heal this feeling and feel better for some months. Sometimes I feel good with my height (with the 2cm help in my shoes however). However, sometimes I fall into a new long and painful period, like last weeks. I had a rendezvous with my 178cm (5'10.1) wife, a day she wore 8cm (~3in) heels, who was accompanied by three of her friends : two 175-176cm (~5'9) girls and a super-tall guy of about 2m (6'6 to 6'7), for going to an evening at the opera which was only for younger people (less than 40 years old). And I don't know if it was because of a super-Alpha-rich-and-healthy-superior-young-class, but it was just INSANE, almost everybody was towering me, even girls were often more than 170-175cm and wearing super high-heels (I've even seen 2 or 3 girls at about 185cm) and young guys were super often at 185-190cm+... I was literally swimming in a canyon, i'm pretty sure you understand what i mean. My wife and her friends were in the good shape, not me at all.
So, even if a remember that in my country average men height is about 176cm (5'9.3) and that I have to force myself to feel 'almost normal', I know and I surely feel that it's really not anymore the case and that the young generation is fkgly giant for many of them (of course i have some smaller friends too, i don't deny, but you know...). Problem is that I'm living everyday with those young people.
Therefore, that is why it is varying all the time. But most of the time it remains painful, even if I'm really not a very small guy (in theory).
And as you know, internet never helps. Even for finding some girls : even if you looks handsome, charming and intelligent, if your bio says '1m76' of something like that, most girls will think 'not bad but i surely can find taller' (especially beautiful ones which have a lot of choices). But more than internet, it's my real-life experience which is driving me into this painful feeling for 12 years now, not only a virtual experience.