Social Media

Let’s face it, social media is addicting. We have all been susceptible to one platform or maybe many platforms at some point in our lives. While what we experience can be positive and influential online, there is a dark side we may not be seeing. What is going on behind the scenes creates a non-realistic reality that many of us then take into our own lives.

Many creators online only post and focus on their good qualities and attributes. Rarely do we see their struggles, tears, and pain. While scrolling through a creator’s feed, we tend to become jealous that our lives are not as fun and filling as theirs seem to look. We have to realize that many of these photos are not real, and only showcase what the creator wants us to see. Take a friend, for example, if you are close to them you know their personal attributes, but if you look at their accounts online it paints an unrealistic picture. People viewing their accounts won’t know of their personal struggles like you do because all they post is them having fun.

Realizing that social media can be a deformed version of reality is ideal for self-care and self-esteem. If looking at others' success is making you feel worthless and self-conscious, it might be a good time to take a break from social media. We become the best versions of ourselves when we aren’t being critiqued and influenced by other people. No one wants to be told what to do, so why are we letting social media have such a big ascendancy in our lives?

Why do we compare ourselves in an unhealthy way to something that isn’t even authentic?

Photoshop, greenscreens, and un-reliable information, we tend to believe something is real just because someone online tells us it is. It’s like taking orders from a robot. If one of your favorite celebrities online told you that everyone looks better, skinnier, and healthier in green clothing, how likely would you be to put on a green shirt tomorrow?

Our minds have been adapted to believe everything we hear and see online. Take weight loss journeys, for example, someone will post a before and after photo, but they don’t convey the pain, hard work, tears, and exhaustion it took to reach their goal. We then think that if they did it so easily, so can we. Then when you try your weight loss journey, reality sets in, and you realize it is not as easy as you may have thought. Failing can lead to mental exhaustion and thoughts of “Why am I not good enough,” and, “But it looks so easy, what is wrong with me.”

It’s like writing, you wouldn’t publish something that you wouldn’t want other people to see. You can hide what you are really feeling, and make your writing seem intelligent and clever. You can curve your writing to suit a certain audience to believe what you are saying. Being raw and showing the truth will not only benefit you and portray real life, but it will benefit your audience and show them the beautiful imperfectness of existence.

Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely positive factors of social media including, inspiration, knowledge, and connecting with others. But how do you know that the content you're being presented is factual? How do you know the people you are talking to are real? We must be careful online and realize that most of the time what we are seeing is a scripted euphoria, and what we see is plainly what others want us to see.