I think we can all agree that social media is great and can be helpful for connecting with others, especially those you aren’t able to see in person. However, people on social media aren’t always as they seem. You can be just about anything you want to be on social media, and it’s scary how easy it is.
With social media, you can create the illusion that you're different than how you really are. You get to pick and choose what parts of you people see and you don’t have to show your mistakes or flaws on social media. Most people show the best parts of themselves and leave out anything that would leave a negative impression of them, something you can’t exactly do effectively in person. There are very few people, if any, that haven't lied on the internet or at least hidden certain parts of their life to make themselves look better. Not even physical appearances are set in stone on the internet when you can easily use filters and photoshop to make your physical appearance however you want it. We've become so obsessed with being someone who isn't us and social media lets you do it almost effortlessly.
For some reason, most people on social media don’t seem happy until they have a certain amount of likes on their posts, Facebook friends, or followers. They rate their self-worth and popularity off of those numbers and set goals for increasing them. The main problem with this mindset is that you’ll never be satisfied. When you reach your original goal, you’re just going to want even more and you’re gonna try harder and harder to change yourself into someone you’re not for the sake of popularity. This becomes a vicious cycle where you become constantly unsatisfied with yourself and your self-esteem drops, sometimes even to the point of depression. Many people have been taught to believe that they aren't good enough if they don't receive a certain number of likes or followers, but these are not accurate representations of self-worth and shouldn't be the goal of being on social media.
Social media also gives one the option to portray their life however they want others to view it. Although this can be done in person, it takes much less effort on social media and has a larger audience. By portraying only certain aspects of their life, one is able to create a narrative where they control the opinions of others about them for the most part. This creates the illusion of knowledge about the person when in reality they are the ones with control over their perceived situations.
Social media by itself though isn’t bad. It’s a great way to keep up with the lives’ of your friends and helps information and news easily circulate. It’s also great for making new friends or catching up with friends that you haven’t spoken to in years. When used incorrectly, however, using social media can have negative consequences and cause all types of problems.
