Love him or hate him, you can’t listen to the radio for five minutes without hearing a song by Justin Bieber. While I’m definitely not arguing for the fact that his songs are lyrically meaningful (think back to 2010 when his hit "Baby" repeated the word baby about 5,000 times), I am proposing the idea that everyone could heed some advice given by one of his more recent hits.

In the song "Love Yourself," the bitter tone that is given off by the lyrics implies that, when Bieber sings, “You should go and love yourself,” he means, "Go screw yourself." While the subject of this song may love herself too much (in Justin Bieber’s opinion), I think that most of us could benefit from taking his advice literally. Since when is it a bad thing to practice some self-love?

As a young adult living in today’s society, loving yourself is not the easiest of tasks. I go on Instagram and see people who are prettier, have nicer clothes, and who have a better body than I do. I go on Twitter and see people who are wittier than I am. I check other people’s Snapchat stories and see that everyone is having more fun than me. I repeat this cycle too many times to count, each and every day, as does practically everyone that I know between the ages of 13 and 20-something.

With all of these feelings of inferiority constantly in our heads, how can we, as young adults in this social media-obsessed world, possibly love our seemingly imperfect and unremarkable selves when all we see on our phones are perfect people with perfect lives? How can we possibly love our hair that doesn’t curl quite right, or our thighs that actually touch, or our pale skin that might have a zit or two when all we see is impeccable curls and a “thigh gap” and bronze skin devoid of imperfections?

I think the answer is simple: stop incessantly checking Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. If you can’t break that habit, at least try to stop comparing yourself to celebrities who only post perfect pictures. Everyone knows that images can be edited an incredible amount using Photoshop or whatever app gives you the whitest teeth and the tannest skin, but I think that often we forget this. We see pictures and assume that they are real people in their true form, leading us to believe that we don’t look as good as them and as a result, contributing to a lack of self-confidence and self-love.

For these reasons, I think that everyone should try to ignore the facetious tone of the song “Love Yourself," but, instead, take it literally and actually put more effort into loving themselves. Get off of Instagram and look at the real people around you. Everyone has rolls in their stomach when they sit down. Everyone gets a pimple sometimes that they try to cover up. Everyone wishes that their teeth were whiter or straighter or that their eyelashes weren’t so invisible without mascara.

If everyone stopped pretending that this wasn’t the case and joined together in solidarity to acknowledge the existence of so-called imperfections, I think that we would all be a lot happier and more confident in our own skin. Instead of only following models on Instagram, go follow people like Amy Schumer, Lena Dunham and Mindy Kaling. And I’m not saying this because of the size of their bodies, but because they post pictures on Instagram that are real, and it makes me so happy.

If you don’t believe me, look at their profiles the next time you go on Instagram and see how good it feels when you scroll past a picture in which they aren’t wearing makeup. Most of us have been conditioned to believe that we look like crap without makeup because people make comments such as “Oh, you look sick,” when you go a day without makeup. I have so much admiration for the celebrities that have the guts to embrace a more natural state in such a public way. I don’t even have the guts to go to Wegmans without makeup, but I think that this is a mindset that can be changed by practicing self-love.

Keep in mind that self-love is practiced in different ways by different people. Get creative and work on finding your own ways to cherish yourself. Maybe getting dressed up helps you to love yourself, or maybe your thing is wearing nothing at all. For some people, keeping a gratitude journal is a nice reminder of how awesome life actually is, which in turn can contribute to loving the person who is leading that life. The possibilities are endless. The important thing is that you think some kind thoughts about yourself (channel your inner Kanye) or engage in some actions that make you and you alone feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Love yourself, not despite your imperfections but because of them, and embrace what is real. Listen to J-Biebs, because we actually should go and love ourselves.