I'm a "millennial." I have an iPhone, and I use it enough to be yelled at by my parents. Pretty much everything that goes wrong in my life "is because of that phone." In most of these instances, these are just our oldie parents not being up with the times. However, in one case, they're right.

If you're any person on this earth, you know that EVERYTHING goes on the internet. People that you hardly even know can see it. It's as if you have a personal view into their private lives. With the creation of Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook, every thought can be captured in so many different ways. This can be as a picture, a thought in 280 characters or less, or a "status" that tells you way more than you needed to know.

Not only do you see everyone's problems, but at times you're bombarded with everyone's successes. Personally, with me, it seems as if everyone is doing better than me. Everyone has better clothes, a better body, and they take exciting trips seemingly every week.

All of my peers throw fancier parties and have so much fun no matter where they are. Even on my twitter, where I follow a lot of fellow mothers, it seems like they're all "momming" better than me. It gets to a point where social media depresses me, and I hate it as much as I need to go on it.

It causes me to wonder, where am I going wrong? Why do I feel inferior over make-believe likes that don't mean anything? I know for a fact that I have followers who like my posts, who wouldn't care if I was sick, or going through hard times. It's just the culture now. We "like" things and it's an automatic reaction even if we truly don't care about the person themselves.

That's the case with everyone, not just me. I'm aware of that, but it still makes me feel like a loser. I see people on Instagram with thousands of followers, hundreds of likes. I see fellow old classmates of mine looking perfect all of the time, and it leaves me feeling worse after being on social media.

I don't feel I just caught up with an old friend. I feel envy that I'm not a known social media presence, and that if I get 100 likes it must be for an extra special occasion, and not just me sipping a drink at a bar.

Granted, mostly this is me having incredibly low self-esteem. But I don't doubt that others may feel similar to me. In our time, social media is at the forefront. It has its pros and cons. I certainly feel grateful for it, but I do wonder about when my parents were young.

Their thoughts stayed in their heads or maybe were shared with close friends, who truly would've cared. They lived in the moment, not worrying about posting a snap first. Pictures were in photo albums, and cameras were disposable.

It must have been easier to focus on their own life, and feel comfortable going at their pace. Friendships must have been harder to keep, but more face to face. There were no "I'm outside" texts. It was a knock on a hard door. It must have been great to just live, without worrying about the perfect pose for maximum likes.

It must have been easier to stay grounded, but then again it was easy to lose touch with friends over the years because of no social media. I've heard many stories where older people were thankful for platforms like Facebook, to get back in contact with old acquaintances. Families have found long-lost members. I can see what our age of technology has done for the better.

However, I struggle with its negative aspects more than what it has given us. I'm in its trap just like everyone else. I post pictures and snaps and I post way more than I probably should everywhere else. Most of the time when I do, I'm putting on this façade that I'm okay.

I'm pretending that my depression isn't tearing me up inside. I'm pretending like my self-loathing isn't crippling me. I seem really outgoing on twitter, but I have terrible social anxiety that has gotten me mocked and lost me friends. I'm pretending like I don't have family drama, or like I have a lot fewer problems than I actually do.

But you wouldn't guess it.

I seem happier on social media than I really am. And I guess that's the case with a lot of these people. Everyone wears a mask, and these platforms make it easier to be whoever you want. It's intoxicating, and it certainly has roped me in.

Everyone has their struggles and bad days. And although a great number feel the need to include us all in every aspect of their lives, not everyone shares that they cried three times last night. Not everyone shares their family struggles. What seems like an exciting, extravagant lifestyle on a screen and under a username, could be totally different in real life. It mostly likely is.

I try to remember that everyone is a person. I try to imagine how this person would present themselves to me if we were face to face. I don't know them, and I should stop trying to pretend I do. I may want their life, but I'm sure they would tell me the opposite.

Yes, I hate social media as much as I seem to need it. It makes me hate who I am and how my life is going, but it has also warped everything we view as important, or attractive. It's all make believe.

The grass is always greener. But hey, it could just be a filter.