How many times have been scrolling through someone's Instagram account or Facebook profile and caught yourself thinking, Wow, their life seems perfect. I wish my life was like that? Or maybe you weren't wishing to be like them, but you were just comparing your life to theirs. I know that this process is almost a nightly routine for me.
Instead of watching Netflix to coax myself to sleep, I spend about 30 minutes scrolling through Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to catch up on whatever social media happenings I missed throughout the day. Last week when I was mid-catch up, I saw that over 15 of my friends had all shared the same article to their Facebook walls. Curious, I clicked the link and read what all of the buzz was about.
The article is titled, "100 Shots, One Day Of Not Eating: What Happens When You Say What Really Goes Into The Perfect Bikini Selfie?" Essena O'Neill, former famous Instagram model, has recently quit social media in attempt to bring an awareness to its negative effects on the generation of young users. She went as far as to change the captions on her previously posted photos to descriptions of what she endured to get that perfect selfie. O'Neill claimed that the overwhelming pressure that came from her social media use left her feeling alone and insecure.
After reading the article, I started thinking about my own thoughts on social media. Is it really all that it is cracked up to be? Social media is supposed to be a tool that keeps us connected with our friends and family so that they can be updated on what is happening in our life at the moment and vice versa. However, social media does not give an accurate depiction of everyday life.
I can say that I know my life seems a lot more perfect through the filters of my Instagram than it does on a day-to-day basis. Whenever I return home from college I always have people tell me, "You must be loving college! I see your posts all the time and it looks like you are having a blast!" And, yes, while it is true that I am loving college, the things that they don't see on my Instagram and Facebook are the grueling all-nighters I pull at the library or the breakdowns I've had when I'm stressed to my breaking point with a full work schedule. When posting on social media we have the ability to be selective about what we share. It is important to keep this in mind when we view other people's social media accounts. We cannot expect to get a genuine picture of someone's life through social media.
I applaud O'Neill for speaking out about her beliefs on social media. However, I also believe that we all have the power control how much we let social media control us. As a social media oriented generation, it is our responsibility to pull our heads out of our phones and look at life for what it really is. We should be going out to eat at restaurants to enjoy the food and company, not for the Instagram opportunity. Our vacations should be spent disconnecting from the stress of everyday life, not as a time to brag about our adventures over social media.
We also have the responsibility to be content with our own life. If we constantly spend our days wishing to look like someone else, drooling over our friends' clothes and cars or wanting as many likes as the next person, we will never be fully satisfied with what we do have. It is crucial that we are able to validate our lives through means other than likes, comments and followers.
O'Neill was right when she said that social media is not real life. I think it is wrong to say that social media is all bad, but it should be taken with a grain of salt.
