You saw the picture of me smiling with all my new friends, but you missed the picture of my tear stained pillow after a wave of stress-induced homesickness. You liked my status about college being the “best time ever,” but you missed the journal entry where I confessed that I was slowly being crushed by the weight of papers and tests that were piling up. You missed these things because I never shared them.
Our generation feels the need to prove to everybody that their life is perfect. They post edited pictures with clever captions so that people will see how well they’re doing. They measure their worth by the number of followers they have and the number of likes their posts get. They no longer know how to go out and have a good time without documenting it by spending the entire night taking pictures. They only post what they want others to think of them, and they want others to think that they’re having the time of their life. They fear their posts only getting a few likes so much that they tell their friends to “Go like my post on Insta!”
Just the other night a friend of mine had posted a selfie, and she began to ponder deleting it for fear of what people might think. It killed me a little bit that this beautiful and intelligent girl could be influenced so much by societal pressures. She posted that selfie because she wanted to, and the thought of judgment by peers or being called vain had caused her to doubt herself. This mentality that “likes” correlate with self worth is what is crushing self-esteems and altering perceptions of happiness in this day and age.
I’m not condemning her or anyone who acts in this way. I do this ALL THE TIME, and that’s why I’m bringing it to attention. I’m tired of spending hours thinking of the perfect caption or editing out my flaws. I’m ready for spontaneously captioned pictures and natural beauty! It’s time for us to stop social media shaming people for posting two pictures in one day or posting three days in a row. It’s time to post that silly selfie. It’s time to stop staring at your phone right after you post something waiting for people to like and comment. It’s time for our generation to find out what in this world truly makes them happy instead of letting their likes and followers tell them.
