Dear "Social Media",
I know your name but I don't know you
I just know you’ve got a bad reputation
and that people only see you how you want them to
But if I did know you, I could still say that I’m not entirely sure I do
But I believe that you can be put to good use,
I just think there’s something you’re afraid to admit
and pin your name to
And truthfully, I don’t blame you
I hope this is not news to you and that it’s something you already know,
but you are powerful, important, and influential
You capable of doing great things on these grounds you own,
but you don’t take responsibility for all that you've helped grow
Your level of confidence is relatively high, and rightfully so
But I’ve been watching it all deteriorate and I’m worried
that you got lost somewhere early on down the road
At any point in time though,
you have the right to turn back and sayno
I’m not sure you ever noticed it
or stopped to see where it all started to wither away,
but you no longer search for the sound of your heartbeat
because you would rather spend your time
looking for your "15 minutes of fame"
You should know that from here on out,
my words may start to sound like they come from an angry place
But I am not angry, I’m just passionate and concerned
about the mental health of the human race
So I ask you to be patient and listen closely as I speak:
You need to stop telling lies to people so carelessly
You need to stop asking us to be perfect
and stop making us feel unjustly insecure
You need to stop ignoring the flaws of humanity
and start treating us the way we deserve
Stop setting impossible and unrealistic standards,
and making it hard to accept ourselves and one another
in this imperfect world
And stop asking us to be the same
because all it does is hurt
Stop comparing and trying to destroy our egos and dreams,
and discouraging our sense of purpose
Stop allowing likes, favorites, and retweets to measure worth
because that kind of system is devastatingly distorted
And stop acting like value is cultivated inside of an app,
when it has an innate existence deep within our chest
Your lies are so infectious they cause people to feel alone and depressed
Stop being okay with being everything you’re not
and continuing to pass on detrimental ideas we were taught
Stop acting like we should accept those ideas,
because we should not
We should be taught and teach
to stop and check for blind spots in our thoughts
And please,
stop pretending that you can only be as happy
as everyone else seems to thinks you are
and that we don’t all have our own story, feelings, andscars
Beauty, intelligence, success, and the meaning of life
are only what we say and decide
They are not engraved in stone or written, signed, and certified
They aredifferentfor every individual,
for every blink of an eye
I know you may or may not agree
with every word that I have said and everything that I see,
but I think if you stop and look around you might see
you're pinned to the same name and responsibilities as me
And if you aren’t the least bit convinced
that any of this is true
read it again,
becauseI wasn’t talking to “Social Media”
I was talking to you
We made this name for ourselves and call it “Social Media”
because we’re afraid to admit that we're responsible
for the way things have grown
The field is provided butwe’ve always been in control of the hose
We're given the materials but we get to pave the road
And I’m worried that this is something
we don't want to admit, understand, or know:
that we're the ones who can stop it all from getting worse,
or continue to let it all go
So at this point in time,
I'm asking you to turn back and say no
Say no to supporting the lies
and being a part of this game
Say no to building deceitful profiles
and hiding behind usernames
Say no to being broken or in pain
and still posting pictures with a smile on your face
Say no to only showing good and never the bad days,
and hiding the reality we all experience, feel, or embrace
Say no because I'm worried and afraid
we're not doing the best we can to take care of the human race
By accepting that we are humans and not usernames,
wemerge reality and cyber space into one lane
And in doing that, we are helping care for and save the human race
In doing that and takingresponsibility
for our own actions and names,
we are turning back andsaying yes
to making a real change