I was mindlessly flipping through snaps I received one day. I flipped the front facing camera on and starting scrolling through the different filters on Snapchat. Normal twenty-something behavior, right? As I flipped through I realized when I got rid of the filter I was horrified by the unfiltered version of my face. How could that shift in what I saw change within only a couple of minutes? As funny as it is, it is also one scary reality.
The filters that I love the most are the ones that make me look the least like myself. Give me a butterfly crown, thinner face, and tanned skin. In only seconds the "mirrored" version of yourself that you are seeing is now made to look "better" by an app. The more you use filters and editing on your pictures, the more of an alternate reality you get when it comes to what you really look like, and how you feel about yourself.
Could this be a dramatic take on social media, apps, and self-esteem? Maybe. We know personally that we all look different in the "pretty filters" then we do without them. When you see someone post another perfect picture you immediately start wondering how that person could look so perfect all the time? What are they doing that you are not?
You mindlessly scroll one perfect picture after another. A flawless selfie, a perfect sunset, an amazing vacation, a new job, all while you are stuck in what seems like a boring, standstill, and "missing out" on so much. "Social" media or TOO much media?
There is a fine line when it comes to knowing too much. People wonder why our generation is dealing with so many different issues but yet they haven't taken a look within the different world we are growing up in. Knowing too much and being constantly bombarded by information you could have lived without knowing has created self-esteem issues, and a generation with a constant void to fill.
Having fun and using social media to socialize is good to a certain extent, and essentially what it was created for. Living by it, never logging off, and striving for the perfection you think exists because of what you see on social media is not what Mark Zuckerberg had in mind when creating Facebook. I don't think he ever thought a 14-year-old would be bullied relentlessly. I don't think he ever thought people would say awful things to each other just because they are not face-to-face. I don't think he could have imagined the plethora of insecurities that are felt every day by even the strongest people.
Not to blame Mark Zuckerberg for any of this, I am just making a point that I don't think anyone could have imagined the way people would twist social media which was simply made for socializing, to so much more.
An app won't make you look prettier in real life, or in places that count like on the inside. Those likes won't validate your insecurities for more than about ten minutes.
The truth about social media isn't pretty, and it's definitely not as flattering as the pretty filter.
