Our generation is known as the "digital age" since everything is online and accessible at any time. You go out to restaurants and see kids buried into their phones, completely ignoring what's going on in real life. I'm not going to lie, social media is a great idea for many reasons, but sadly it's used for all the wrong reasons and it has helped to kill our generation.
People depends on likes and followers to measure their self-worth and grow their confidence.
Did you ever post a photo and receive a good amount of likes and you feel your confidence grow a little? You may not have had this intention, but your self-worth rises higher when you see the likes go up and up. Did you ever post a photo and not receive very many likes and find yourself deleting the post because you're semi-embarrassed? This is part of the "killing" I'm talking about.
We value the opinions of people who we don't even know. Yes, we know some of our Insta followers, but everyone has randoms following especially if your account isn't private. So you're basically letting strangers dictate how you feel? You value yourself based on likes, the more/less you get the more/less your confidence is. Doesn't that sound so wrong? Basing your self-worth on likes on a website? Sadly, that's the reality of today.
People will post risky photos simply to get likes, to feel better about themselves and to me, that's not okay. Regardless of how popular you are on it, it actually doesn't matter. Online followers are just that. Even if it's people you know in real life, their opinion and whether or not your photo was worth their like, shouldn't matter to you. If you felt good in that selfie, then you felt good and never forget that. Just because you don't get a thousand or so likes, doesn't mean that your not worth it, or you're not attractive. I wish so much that we could stop that social media stigma.
And it doesn't stop at likes; it also helps us compare one another, helping jealousy to flare.
Not only do we value likes like they’re God, but we can compare ourselves so much easier. We can look at others on social media and compare ourselves to what they have, how they look. It's easy for us to scroll down and think about how skinny that girl is and how we wish we were her. And how much fun that boy looks like he's having while we're laying in bed on a Friday night. We need to learn how to look at the photos of others and not compare ourselves. How to just look at photos, scroll past or like, and move on.
It doesn't stop at Instagram either. People are guilty of doing the same compare on Facebook or Twitter, when people post about being happy they just bought their first car, or how they just got in a relationship. We look at other people as a meter, where we should be in our life. If someone your age just bought a car, we tend to sit there and question how they got a job to pay for a new car, and how come you're still at a minimum wage job. This is where jealously sparks up causing unnecessary hate.
Instead of being angry, use it as a motivator. Set goals. Do you. Realize that you're different, everyone’s path is different. Maybe in a year, you'll be buying a house, not a car. Realize that you can't compare your life journey to others because it's different. It's meant to be.
Social media killed appreciating the small things in relationships and took over with unrealistic "relationship goals".
Scroll down Facebook or Twitter right now and you're guaranteed to see "#RelationshipGoals" somewhere down the page. Most of the time, they're unrealistic goals that not everyone can reach. Claiming that if your BF doesn't text you back in ten minutes, he doesn't love you. He has a side chick and you should dump him. If she doesn't send you naked pictures, she's not "the one". If he doesn't buy us a big stuffed teddy bear for Valentines Day, he's cheap and you should dump him. The list goes on and on.
Truth is, every relationship is different, and everyone shows his or her love in a different way. You can't compare yourself to another person because their love and the way they show it is different than what your boyfriend or girlfriend may do for you. Everyone does it different. There's not a specific guide that people need to follow when in a relationship. The only thing that should be agreed a crossed the board is to not be an a-hole and cheat and break hearts.
It also helps people live a fake life with fake happiness.
Relationships can also suffer because they become what I call a "social media relationship." These kinds of relationships thrive on social media, constantly updating how in love they are, posting happy photos every single second of the day, constantly reminding everyone how happy they are. Sadly, this is usually a social media persona, and they're unhappy for real, but they need to fake a smile for Insta or Facebook.
People can also edit photos to make them look different, share things to make them seem "cool", and basically live a fake online life. They're able to craft the life they want people to believe they live because it's virtual, you can be who you want and say what you want. People copy people, compare each other, and no one knows how to be themselves anymore. That's what's the problem no one can be original. No one can be himself or herself. They have to always be with the "in" crowd, changing themselves to please others.
So here's a reminder to be different. Appreciate the small things. Appreciate yourself; know you're worth it. Know you're not the amount of followers you have, or the amount of likes you get. Remember that you're unique and you're not supposed to be like everyone else. Remember that your relationship is different, that your relationship is unique to you. Remember that you shouldn't compare yourself, that you should use envy as motivation. Remember that you're you, and that you should live your life making YOU happy. Not focusing on anyone else.
