Social Media Isn't The Biggest Problem In America, We Are
Social media is a huge problem but so is our own human nature.
In the past few years, it's become the norm to talk down on social media.
Social media is ruining our society, young people these days don't have any real social skills, all people care about now is like, retweets and follows.
And I do believe that these are all true, I don't believe that the blame should lay solely on social media. We as people have allowed technology and social media to rise to the position that it is in our society today by convincing ourselves that is something that we cannot live without. We have programmed ourselves to crave online interactions rather than physical interactions and obsess over people who don't even know we exist; to curate a perfect online personality instead of showing who we really are -- flaws and all. Social media, which was once a luxury, has now become a necessity.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that the structure of social media itself encourages the behavior I previously described and the latest social media updates are constantly being shoved down our throats. However, I feel like we don't talk about the human contribution as much. It is out of our need to be better than others that we find the need to compare ourselves to other people that we don't even know, pinpointing flaws about them to make ourselves feel better.
Social media is a problem, but so are we as human beings. We want to be better than others by making them feel bad about themselves, appearing as though we are perfect and popular online and doing whatever we can to make sure we are; being overly dependent on technology to interact with people we could easily go out and talk to among other things. When we realize that we are a huge aspect of the control social media has on our lives, then we can have the conversation required to lessen that control.
Social Media Is An Unhealthy Popularity Contest But You Can Drop Out From The Race
Whether you've been waiting for a sign or not, I'm here to personally deliver you some advice.
Social media is a huge popularly contest, it always has been and it always will be.
It's easy to post a photo and see instant gratification when the likes and comments start flooding in. It makes us feel good to have people enjoy what we post, especially in the form of a heart on our pictures. But it can also feel terrible when you see everyone around you get at least over 100 or 200 likes on whatever they post and you struggle to get above 50.
The truth is that social media is mindless. If it's easy for someone to digest, like a photo, people will look at it for maybe one second, give it a like, and continue scrolling.
Nobody tears apart our posts as badly as we do our own.
This can be both good and bad. Sometimes we want people's eyes to linger a couple seconds to appreciate every detail of our posts. Sometimes it's better to not have someone tear apart your subpar image. Either way, you can't control what interests every single person, so you need to let go of the pressure to fit a picture-perfect image that bloggers often portray.
In the simplest of terms, people on social media are straight up lazy. If it requires them to sit there for a minute watching a video and for them to turn up sound, they're going to scroll past. But if you have someone actually interested in taking the time to look at your post, it is going to have such a greater impact and remain of the memory of those who watch it. It's hard because you can't always know who actually takes the time and you won't always see or hear about how much someone enjoyed your work, but you have to believe that they did.
Comparing yourself to other people's interactions on social media is a dangerous game. It will only be a one-sided competition between you and this other person who has no idea how much you feel threatened by their actions. You're only pouring out your energy into something that will only leave you feeling inadequate. It's easier said than done, but instead of counting likes and comments, just turn off your notifications.
If you're an introverted person like me, you may only have a few close friends which doesn't always show very well on social media. Because we don't pour ourselves into many people, we won't see a greater amount of people pouring into us, and this also translates on social media. It's incredibly easy to compare yourself to extroverted people because they wear their lives on their sleeves. But us introverts are reserved and don't always show everything so it's easy to forget the great things we do. Remind yourself that just because someone may get more likes than you does not mean they are better than you.
Only post the things in your life for yourself that bring you happiness. Use your Facebook as a reference for you to see your own progress over the course of a year. Use Instagram as a photo book of your life and best moments for you to look back on and smile. Use Twitter as a stream of thoughts for you to document the ups and downs of life (but be careful not to use it as a therapist). In the end, do what is best for you in the long run and forget the numbers on your posts.