Facebook and Instagram are replacing the looking glass in today’s society. Not long ago, a young woman would look in the mirror and assess how she looks or even seek an opinion from a friend. Today, she is posting a picture on social media and determining her self worth, beauty, and style by the amount of “likes” the picture receives. This is causing major self-esteem issues for young women and changing the way they view themselves everyday. It is time for us to step back and realize what is truly important.
Recently I was sitting in the hub doing my homework when I heard a girl speaking to her friend. She said, “If my picture doesn’t receive over 100 likes I delete it.” I was completely shocked to hear this. The first thing that came into my mind was the most likes I have ever received on a picture was forty, the next thing that popped into my mind was "why do we care so much about it?" After all, I can guarantee that the girl doesn’t have a hundred really close friends. So why does she care so much about what people she barely knows thinks about her? This is the problem that social media is rapidly causing and most people don’t even realize that it is influencing their self-esteem that much. It is so important to sit back and ask ourselves why we care about other people’s opinions and start focusing about what we love about ourselves. If you are sitting on the couch watching television with your best friend with your hair up, sweatpants on, and no make up and you want to take a picture and post it then you should. Don’t let what other people think of your appearance stop you from feeling good about yourself.
One of my favorite quotes is by E.E Cummings, “The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be someone else.” I hear all too often about how someone’s life seems so much better than what theirs looks like. But what people don’t realize is that most only post what they want someone to see. Social media is not reality, but a filter, it only reveals the good and filters out the rest. It is not fair to yourself to compare your life to someone else’s. Live the life you will look back on one day and be proud of.
