If you live in the 21^st century anywhere near technology, you are bound to either have or know someone who has social media as a part of their daily lives. People are consumed with the likes they get on their Instagram picture, how many retweets their hilarious 140-character thought got, or retouching and editing content until they achieve as close to perfection as they can. I see this every day and cannot help but shake my head. In my eyes, caring about a social media presence is wasting time from the much more important aspects in my life. And for that, I refuse to be a “social media snob,” as I kindly refer to it.

None of it really matters.

In reality, do “likes” get you anything in return? Unless you are paid to Instagram pictures for your profession, they do not equate to much. What really matters are the friends and support system that you have present in your real life. You may get 500 likes on every single picture posted from your account. But, at the end of the day if you have no one to help you and support you in your actual life, what does it matter? Sure, it may be a bragging point among peers or bring you temporary happiness. What really matters though is friendship and making lasting memories with the people that you love. That is going to bring you the greatest lasting joy- the people who like more than just your fake candid snapshots, not your 150 likes in 50 minutes on the picture you just posted.

The quality of people is greater than quantity.

Quite the cliché, but it is a saying that holds true. Many social media users desire to increase their follower count to ultimately improve their “follower-to-following ratio.” Those followers are not your real friends. I personally would rather have 10 people who followed me and genuinely cared what I put on the Internet, than be followed by 1,000 people I do not even know. Having more followers does not necessarily make you better or more popular, either. Hitler had thousands upon thousands of followers. Jesus, on the other hand, had 12 disciples. It does not matter the number of people who are following you, but how deeply the people are invested in you.

Loving myself is more important than having “the look.”

I refuse to retouch or edit any of my social media content, especially my personal appearance. For me, this is part of loving myself. Not everyone has pearl-white teeth and an hourglass figure to show off, and I am no exception. What people see on my social media profiles is what they get: me. I do not pretend to be someone I am not just to achieve a certain look for Instagram. God made each of us so darn special, and we truly are all perfect in His image. With all of the editing and retouching, who are we trying to be? What are we trying to hide? The answer is the truth. Loving myself gives me the audacity to be able to present my real self to the social media world instead of pretending to be the person I know they would like to see.

Being myself brings me joy.

Too many people worry if they are posting a picture at the right time of day, if their caption is witty enough or how the overall content of their post will go over with their followers. Why? So you can get the maximum amount of “likes” on your picture? I would so much rather post about what I want, say what I feel needs said and not give a single care how it goes over with my followers in terms of social media “success.” That comes with being yourself. In the moments where I am truly happy, I am with the people that I love the most making memories with them. So, this is the kind of content I would typically share on my profile. So what if I am breaking the one post a day rule or putting a picture online at 3 a.m.? I am sharing pieces of myself and what brings me the most joy in the way I want to.

I challenge you to defy the social media norms and use the platforms as tools to share who YOU are, not how the world wants to see you or who it wants you to be. There is so much more to your life than obtaining more likes on your Instagram or having an overwhelming amount of Facebook friends. Realizing that the most important aspects of life are having friends that care about you, loving who you are and being confident in your unique image all trump achieving the viral status of a tweet. Do not let social media control how you live your life and how you project yourself, but rather just the opposite. Share who you are as a unique individual with the world; it will make you so much happier. Be authentic; it is so much more appealing than a snob.