I know I've touched on this topic a couple of times already, but as I've been spending more and more time on the internet (oh boy, that doesn't sound good now that I say that) I've been enduring a lot of social media side effects that include the whole, "I'm jealous of what that person is doing. I wish my life was as good as their's," dilemma thing.
Maybe it's time I walk away from Facebook and Instagram for a little bit and reevaluate all the silly things my mind is telling me.
I am aware that I am smart enough to understand that not everything on the Internet is what it's cracked up to be, that nobody is always as happy as they look or say they are when they post something on social media.
When you're scrolling through your News Feed on Facebook, you are often bombarded with pictures of that girl you sat behind you in chemistry class junior year -- she's got the perfect boyfriend and she shares their dating escapades with the world. Cute snaps of them smiling like their faces are going to be sore later, holding hands, kissing, the whole deal. But what if there is something behind that? What about the whole story? Would she post about the fight they had before their lovely date, or how she got food poisoning?
OK, before I go any further, please do not think that I'm trying to find some negative side to this on purpose because that's totally not the case at all. However, we must keep an open mind that these things occur. Why? Because the Internet is the one place where you can create a life -- any life that you want,and control it in a way that you cannot control your world in real life. And that's normal because we all do it. We all want to portray this happy-go-lucky lifestyle, and it's so easy to go overboard with it and to get sucked into it because the social media world is such an easy place to create that perfect life. You can edit, you can delete, add the best caption after some thought. It's so weird how simple it is to trick people into thinking your life is way better than it actually is -- that we all presume we know someone's life from media, but maybe we truly don't.
Everyone's posts are happy. None of them are sad. OK, to be fair, I do come across the "pity me" status -- I've even been guilty of doing that. But the majority of them are conceived as perfection. It's not hard to get caught up in the game, comparing yourself to other people's lives via social media and forgetting that it's not always that ideal and flawless. Because if you could edit your real world, wouldn't you?
Sometimes I'll actually look at this one girl's posts and believe that her world is literally that quintessential and I'll wonder, "Why? How does she have the perfect boyfriend? How do they never fight? How are they always happy?" Then I remember that I'm feeling sad and like I'm a loser compared to her because I know how real my life is -- I know the side of the story. I know what the grass is like on the other side. I know how real, difficult and terrifying life is on the opposite side of the screen facing me because it's my situation. And I bet that girl looks at my posts and thinks my life is better than hers, but it's only because she sees me doing nothing, but smile and post inspirational quotes about how I won't settle for less.
This topic has been touched on so many times, but it continues to intrigue me as our technological world advances in incredible ways. Recognizing how popular platforms such as Facebook or Instagram can fool people into thinking others have the best life ever, is just one of the many things that get caught in the technological world, so why not? It's important to understand that everything you see on the Internet is not perfect.
It is not perfect, and it is not always 100 percent real.
It's just the truth and a lot of the world needs to be reminded of that.
