Instagram, Twitter, Facebook — we all have one. We spend countless hours a day refreshing our screens in hopes of something riveting to appear. We idolize the famous, disregard the average and aspire to become what we love looking at. Social media has consumed the vast majority of our free time.
Now as an avid social media user, I have seen the harms and detriments caused by the overwhelming presence that is Instagram. If I get only 30 likes on what I view as a, for lack of a better term, “bomb-ass pic," I will, in fact, delete that picture. Two pictures a day, constant refresh, have all been factors in my life. Why has life become a game of “Let’s see how many likes I can get?” Why must we take posed, yet “candid” photographs? Why is it that we’d rather document the awesome time we are having, at a specific moment, rather than enjoy it with the people in that moment? Social media is definitely a highly effective communication platform, yet we’ve turned it into something so destructive.
Does social media need to be a destructive entity, present in most of our lives? It definitely does not. The problem isn’t the presence itself, but the infatuation we’ve transformed it into. How can we change the stigma that has turned us into cell phone-absorbed, computer-crazed individuals?
Go outside.
Enjoy the fresh air. Appreciate all the earth has to offer, on a non-technological scale.
Read a book.
Go to the nearest Barnes and Noble and pick up that masterpiece you’ve been eyeing for a while. Now’s your chance.
Take a few minutes of every day to just unwind.
Shut your phone off, close the laptop and just take that well-deserved “me” time, we all require. Don’t invest that time into other people’s business.
Be true to yourself in person.
Cut the fake laughs, the endless pictures of your latest shopping spree, and your “#foodporn”-worthy meal. Enjoy the time in the moment of your experience. It builds and maintains relationships far better than any hashtag ever could. How you feel on the inside, will reflect on the outside. If you feel good, you look good — naturally.
