I believe that in one way or another, everyone wants to be seen, have their voices heard, be noticed by others and be well-liked. We all want people to care about us and we all want to be remembered and included. No one wants to leave this life without people knowing that they were here.

I think that this is the reason why so many people spend their time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and every other form of social media. It’s a way for people to visually see their thoughts and pictures being liked and commented on. It’s a way for people to know that their voices are being heard. It’s a way for people to feel connected, remembered, and cared about.

Before I continue, I want to make it clear that there is nothing wrong with being on social media. There is nothing wrong with posting a cute picture or tweeting a funny joke. However, the issue arises when you begin to care too much about how people are responding to what you are posting. You begin to care too much about how many likes you get on a selfie, who liked it, who favorited your tweet, or who watched your snapchat story. You begin to base your self-worth and happiness on whether or not you are popular on social media. In my opinion, I think it is time that we all stop letting ‘likes’ define us.

For those of you who don’t care how many likes you get on something after you post it, keep on keeping on. For the rest of us, I think we need to put our IPhones down and step back for a moment. When is the last time you took a picture just for fun? I don’t mean a picture to snapchat to someone or a picture to post on Instagram. I mean a picture to print out and hang in your room just for yourself. Or when is the last time you posted something on social media and then never went back to check how many likes it got? If you are like me, it has probably been awhile.

I think we all need to realize that how many likes you get on a picture or a post really doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t make you a better person or a worse person. It doesn’t mean you have more friends or less friends. All it means is that someone took half a second to press the thumbs up button before scrolling down the rest of their feed. So why do we care so much?

Likes on a post shouldn’t have an effect on your happiness. While it is fun to update your friends and family on your life, your social media account doesn’t define you in any way. It doesn’t matter how many friends you have on Facebook, how many likes you get on a post, or how many people favorite your tweet. What matters is you and how you feel about whatever it is you are choosing to share with the world. Don’t let anyone but you define who you are.