I am frequently on my phone, scrolling through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Recently I have picked up on certain things that everyone is posting, saying how great everything is and how happy they are. I have seen parents posting all of their children's achievements and every vacation they take as if this is some kind of unspoken competition.

But that is exactly what it is, the majority of individuals using social media is just for fun and entertainment, but some take it way too far and create a false persona of them and how their lives actually are.

As the summer months go on, I am noticing posts that are just getting faker as time goes on. Certain people want to be perceived happy so badly because to them, how others perceive them is everything. If they do something others could possibly want to do or would find some sort of jealousy in, they snap a picture and throw a clever caption to go along with it.

I think this whole idea is just sad. I can't understand how people are okay with only being perceived to live the life they dream instead of actually living it.

So many individuals strive to look like their lives are in tact, and their profiles are picture perfect, but if we actually were with them for a day we would simply see normal everyday people with the same struggles. We forget that the mom that posts countless photos and statuses about every good thing her child does fail to post the negative things their child does. Why? Perception. The need to seem perfect.

Snapchat is another problem. People use their stories to lure others in, create jealousy of their significant others or potential significant others and this becomes problematic. Also, Snapchat is so easy to use, if something is happening, I guarantee most people are already pulling their phones out to Snapchat it. One question.. do you workout? if you do, you obviously post a Snapchat story to prove you actually went to the gym. I don't know why we do it, I am even guilty of using Snapchat to an almost annoying extent. I love being able to snap quick pictures when I think I look great, or when I am eating a nice meal. But the thing is, that is not my life every day.

What I am trying to say is, all of us are a part of the social media game, whether we believe we are or not. To an extent, we are participants. I am sitting here writing this article when even I am guilty every now and then of posting something for the wrong reasons. Social media sucks you in and nowadays, it only is getting worse.

We need to try to catch ourselves before we become the individuals that are already completely consumed, and we need to stop believing all of their fake posts and feeling bad about ourselves because our life doesn't seem as interesting as theirs.