We can all agree that social media has shaped our lives and continues to define us. Facebook gives us a majority of our information, we send out party invites, and sometimes we meet a significant other on that rare occasion. I love browsing through Twitter and Instagram, but occasionally, these apps bring tears, insecurity, jealousy, and hatred. I have spent countless hours perfecting my pictures, with or without filters and comparing myself to others. Social media makes us expose every detail about ourselves and can sometimes manipulate us. Let's not forget the obvious: you are not going to take a selfie and post it if you are breaking out, or if you haven't washed your hair in three days. The real truth is: you are going to wait until you go out with friends, and have your hair all done, probably too much makeup on, and a stylish outfit. When you catch viewers on that picture, you can guarantee girls sitting at home, with sweatpants on and no makeup will be looking and thinking "Oh my goodness, she is so pretty!! I wish I looked like that."

It really is an art to have the perfect social media platform. You need clever captions, a barrage of pictures, perfect filters, and a balance when it comes to posting. We so easily compare ourselves just because a friend has more followers than us, more likes on a picture, or more favorites on that, what you thought was a genius tweet. Having the perfect Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts almost seems like an art. It quickly degrades our self esteem because we tend to notice our flaws,that we honestly never knew existed.

Social media does nothing but create misunderstandings between family and friends. For instance, I have not been invited to certain events and seen my friends posting pictures at the event, or, I have posted pictures with certain friends, and others will get mad at me. Facebook and Twitter do not allow a tone of voice or body language to our messages, and that is just one essential to understand others. It is also difficult to understand someone's view on a topic, with just a simple post. Because of this, there are always two sides to a story, and getting mad at some post is silly and not needed.

Last but not least, the lack of privacy on social media. Of course, there are settings that only allow friends to see your posts, but come on, how many are actually your "friend." It is also easy to take screenshots of a post or picture; you may delete something, but someone could have saved it before you took action.

I really do love scrolling through Twitter and checking up on friends, but if I had to choose, I'd rather not have social media. When you hear your parents say the old-fashioned face to face communication speech, it really is true.