Dear Social Media,

You popped into our lives in the early 2000's and it's safe to say you have made your mark.

What did life look like without you in it? What did it look like when people had real conversations without pausing to Tweet or update a Status in the midst of it?

Did we really ever feel a sense of pride before Snap Streaks? Or were people ever bold enough to make the same mean comments face-to-face as they make hiding behind a screen?

What have you done?

You were supposed to be a place to express beliefs and opinions without being scrutinized and belittled by coward strangers

But everyday people feel the need to type up a nasty comment on their iPhone to tear apart a status or tweet they don't agree with.

You were supposed to be used in moderation

But people around the globe click and scroll you more times a day than their feet take steps.

You were supposed to bring people miles apart, closer together

But you've torn us all apart and against one another. We've never been more divided.

You were supposed to be a safe and fun place to connect with people, anywhere

But you're scared and you're used for terrible things. Ahem, cat-fishing.

You were supposed to be a place where everyone could be who they were and not feel sorry for it

But you constantly destroy people's self-esteem and you're full of profiles of people putting on their best fake act.

You were supposed to be a GOOD thing

But there's so much BAD in you

Oh Social Media, what happened to you? You clearly have the best intentions, but you're being used in all the wrong ways. Somewhere along the way, your users must have misread the instructions.

That's right, I said it. We as users have corrupted this GOOD thing.

Social media is only a tool, and a tool cannot work without a user.

Accounts cannot be created without users.

Mean comments cannot be created without users.

Division cannot be done without users.

Misuse in bad ways without users doing so.

Over-usage cannot happen without users.

So who's the monster here?

We all are.

But we don't have to be. In a generation where the blame is always on someone else, we must take responsibility of our words and actions. We must choose to build each other up, we must learn to disagree in an appropriate way, we must only say things we would say in person and we must know when to use it and when to put it away.

Social media can be used for GOOD and while there will always be BAD people, a lot of GOOD people can outweigh them.

So be a sport and be the nice person behind the screen, we don't have time for any more monsters.

Sincerely,

The user who refuses to be a monster anymore