Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat. What do these three have in common? Perhaps it is the capacity to share photos, what you have been up to throughout the day or the thoughts running through your head. Maybe it is the ability to message and converse with followers, reply to, favorite or share others’ posts and feel as though you are “in the loop” as you contribute to others’ online activity. It may also be the way all three of these social media outlets encourage us to display a representation of ourselves that we otherwise could not. A persona we wish to convey to said followers because every tweet, snap-story, photo and caption are being posted for a purpose. 

Whether it be to communicate an emotion that elicits a response from followers or to show them where you have been, what you are doing, what kind of music you like and so on…Each post is thought through to show others what exactly you have been up to and in a way these outlets become more than just a means to share our lives with one another. It sometimes feels as though they mold society to care more about what others think of us and how we are perceived by those who follow our twitter feeds or snap-stories.

Do not misunderstand me, technology is great. I love that I can share a funny moment through a snap-story, a monumental photo through Instagram and a beautiful thought through Twitter with my friends and followers. However, sometimes I wonder, if I chose not to post something does it become any less valid? Am I doing it for me or for them? More often than not I find that it's for them. There’s nothing wrong with that, except when no one is doing it for themselves and we have an abundance of posts that all look and feel alike because what makes them worth posting is a set criteria – others have to care. 

It is no longer about eating brunch with a friend. More people have to get involved via your post and see your sunny side up, approve of it and maybe comment on how delicious it looks. You cannot simply listen to a song on you iPod, you need to tweet “A Whole New World #np.” A night out with friends is not complete unless you have a snap-story to archive it for 24 hours. This is what your followers care about though, this is what gets the likes, this is what reflects who you are, someone whose life people care about. But maybe who you really are gets lost in this translation, what if we are slowly losing our individualism by following this set criteria that generates interest?

I asked a fellow student, Ari Kazanjian who is an incoming Junior at UCLA what makes him want to post on Instagram? “I only post Instagram pictures when I know I’m gonna get a lot of likes on it.” 

Then I asked if he posts things for his own pleasure or for others, and he replied “It’s not that it’s for other people’s pleasure but it’s definitely things I think people will be intrigued by or else I won’t be getting likes or attention.”  

This brings me to my point. If we only post things with the intention of generating interest, then on social media we all seem very interesting but horribly alike. We are all made up of posts that contain our greatest accomplishments, beautiful sceneries, mouthwatering meals, late night thoughts, music and popular quotes marked by hash-tags from their makers. That is why those are the posts that will be liked and generate interest, they are what everyone is posting, but who does that make you? Just some food for thought.