I pulled up my Snapchat story and checked to see who had seen my 'flawless'selfie from earlier today. I scanned the list of names, looking for a certain someone's name on the list. I caught myself checking to see who had seen my story, how many likes on my picture on my Instagram, how many favorites on my Tweets. Suddenly, I was hit with the realization with how silly I was being. Whether the number of likes on my picture was 7 or 70, what did that actually matter? Who cares if I the article I published had 50 shares on Facebook. Why did these things even matter to me? I am not "like that."
I have always told myself that social media totally does not matter to me. Like, I am so not "basic" I thought as I hoped maybe a cute, funny, normal guy would hit me up on Tinder or slide into my DMs on Instagram or something. Whatever it is, in my free time I am most likely scrolling through some sort of social media hoping for another like or follow. But after I somewhat shamefully realized I what I was doing, I immediately was hit with an idea to write about: loving YOU in a world of likes.
So here we are now, me hoping to convey what you should already know! That you are way more important than the likes you get on a picture or views on a Snapchat. "Sure, Elaina, I know this. No duh," you might be saying (or is it just me that sometimes talks as I read an article? Just me? OK). But really, do you know this?
While you might have thousands of followers on Instagram or be a Vine star (does anyone still do that? I never had that app) or a Snapchat queen, you might be a normal person trying to navigate a social media obsessed world. I realized that instead of posting for attentions, I should either 1) not post at all; or 2) post because I love that picture. Social media has definitely consumed many young adults to the point that some people obsess over the respective apps.
You should remind yourself, though, that you are worth so much more than what any social media app says about your profile. You are wonderful. Go to Pinterest and look up inspirational quotes to remind yourself that you are 'rad.' Ask your mom if you need a totally biased but welcomed opinion about you. Look in the mirror and say "I rock." There are about a thousand other things in this world that are way better than likes or retweets or whatever it is that you are obsessing over. I can almost guarantee that the world outside of social media is more fun than social media. I say almost because I don't know your life but I digress. Put down the phone and live it up for a while. Who knows, you might finally get that cute candid you have been trying for.
