A questions about correlative comparatives
Which of the following sentences is correct? Or are both correct?
- The more you pick at your wound, the worse it gets.
- The more you pick at your wound, the worse it will get.
I've looked on many websites but have become so uncertain. I'm a native speaker but find myself in a quandary about this simple sentence. My first gut feeling was #2. The will future in the second part sounded right to me. But now I'm confused. I'd appreciate any help on this one.
Both sentences are correct, but they have slightly different meaning.
By expressing the consequence in the present tense, this sentence ...
The more you pick at your wound, the worse it gets.
... observes that there is an ongoing pattern that the result of you picking at your wound is that it gets worse.
On the other hand, by expressing the consequence in the future tense, this sentence ...
The more you pick at your wound, the worse it will get.
... predicts the same pattern as the previous sentence, but does not in itself imply that that pattern of events is currently ongoing.