We are very fortunate to live in an age that is flourishing with technology. Never has humanity had easier ways to communicate with each other and quickly share information. With the rapid rise of this digital age has come a plethora of social media outlets to let people express what’s going on in their day to day lives, share opinions, and barrage their friends and followers with images of themselves and the world around them.
With social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, though, one can paint a picture of their lives that isn’t quite accurate to reality. Especially when following celebrities and seeing the lavish lives they lead and the conspicuous consumption of clothing, jewelry, makeup, and travel, comparing one’s life to those you see in your newsfeed can’t help but make you feel awful about your own life.
But this is dangerous.
People rarely feel inclined to share the gritty, not so attractive moments of their lives. Instead we try and show off all of the wonderful and enviable facets that tend to happen to us. We post a Facebook status about a compliment we received. We post a photo of ourselves meticulously made up and dressed like a Kardashian on Instagram. We Snapchat that amazing party we went to over the weekend. We share the good stuff, but hide the bad stuff.
These tendencies create the visage of a totally different person than the one behind the screen posting the statuses and photos and videos. They create a “perfect” persona. But, as we all know, nobody is perfect. Since we are so attached to social media nowadays, though, our better judgement falls to the wayside in lieu of seeing what “great” lives your friends lead.
We must remember to imagine people complexly, though. Their online presence is what they want you to see, but not quite what their lives actually are. Especially when it comes to celebrities and internet personalities, we only see the most shallow parts. It’s important to remember that every single person we see in our newsfeeds or featured on a homepage is an honest to God human being with thoughts, feelings, struggles, and strifes. Just because you don’t see them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
This is not an entreaty to coerce people into sharing those personal, aching struggles that we all go through, but rather a reminder that we do indeed all go through them. This is a reminder to not judge yourself and your life based on the surface-level images of others. Remember that everything posted to one’s social media is a choice, and we often choose to celebrate the good things in our lives. But just because someone else is having a seemingly good life, does not mean that you cannot have one too. People are not their social media accounts.
