It’s the same Tuesday night: you are in your room, surfing the web, and wondering why your friend decided to not go to the movies with you tonight. So, you go on Instagram to see a new photo posted by none other than your friend, hanging out with her boyfriend instead of you. You begin to feel hurt, angry, and upset at your friend, especially since she had the nerve to post a picture of her being so happy when she completely bailed on you. But, is she actually hanging out without you? Is she as happy as she is showing herself as online?

Social media has taken an overwhelming role in everyday life, and has become so commonplace that not having a Facebook account is referred to as “weird”. You can see where all of your friends are by looking at their Snapchat story, Facebook location, or latest Instagram post. While this is convenient to be able to connect with friends whenever your heart desires, it is also a bit frightening to have your whereabouts shown to people that you may not be close friends with.

But, social media has become more than an outlet for individuals to express their opinions. It has become a constant source of information that many people view as more accurate than some news sources, since it is all over websites that they frequently visit. Although it is ok for social media to be a part of adolescents’ lives, it may be the case where websites such as Facebook are the major source of information for young adults to base their opinions on. This fact is one that worries many people, including myself, since the strong judgments could be influencing young minds in a negative way by viewing social media as “real life”.

For example, social media could impact the issue of politics heavily, even if the individual does not have sufficient information to make a strong opinion about their political background. If one young adult has friends who are very liberal and strongly support Hillary Clinton, the young adult may also begin to support Hillary just because they are using the social media posts by their friends to guide their judgment. This may become a “shortcut” to the next generation of adults, since they may solely look to social media to make decisions rather than gaining knowledge and making their own opinions independently.

So, when you are looking through your Facebook feed and see your friends posting about a current issue in today’s world or how much fun they are having at a party, do not take their attitudes and emotions as fact. Individuality may be lessened over time if social media is used more to base one’s mindset, especially regarding teenagers, which is a very vulnerable age regarding self-concept and self-esteem. It is up to each and every person in this world to absorb as much knowledge as they can and make individual opinions so that each member of the world may contribute their own ideas to the greater good.