More often than not I find myself rolling my eyes as I scroll through the posts of all my ‘friends’ as they make a point to let us know how ‘#blessed’ they are while they share their experiences with everyone. Quite frankly though, no one cares about your summer vacation to Mexico, your 4.0 GPA, or how much you love your boyfriend, and if anyone cared that much you could probably just tell them in person.

But if no one cares, why is so much time devoted to social media? It was found from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics that on Facebook alone, an average of 40 minutes a day are spent browsing through one's timeline (more time than the average American spends playing with their pets).

Social media gives us an open audience to share our thoughts and opinions to with just a click of a button. Thus, social media is not meant so much for the entertainment of reading everyone else's news but more so, to share our own. However, having this instant ability to post right at our fingertips may be the source of a narcissistic culture.

Narcissism is an inclination towards self absorption, the hunger to gain attention from others. Thus, social media outlets such as Facebook and Instagram provide the perfect spark for such behaviors and attitudes. Our intense need to earn recognition and admiration from our peers can be instantly fed through the likes and comments.

For example: the selfie.

What does a member of an audience gain from viewing a selfie? The view of the beach behind the persons head? Or even better, the back seat of their car?

Selfies do not offer any interesting information except for the audience to view a portrait of their filtered, distorted self, in addition as a way to measure self worth based on the ‘like per minute’ ratio.

However, here is the conundrum: social media does indeed provide many benefits. It could be used as a way to network, share pictures, and stay in touch with friends and family. I have relatives who live in Australia, which, without the convenience of social media, it would be near impossible to stay in touch with them. In addition, it could allow one to stay up to date on the news in the busy atmosphere of college by conveniently following pages such as The New York Times for breaking news stories.

We are posed with the problem to what extent can one benefit from social media. Can we turn a blind eye on how well it supports our egotistic views of ourselves for the benefits that it provides, or should we put an end to it?