The world of popular culture has always revolved around being cool - whatever being cool meant in that moment. Generally speaking, however, being cool is typically holding your head up high and pretending to always be in a state of nonchalance. To care about anything in particular, is to succumb to the un-cool, the boring, the LAME. In order to be successful in life, you must not show any strong emotions; you shouldn't wear your likes/dislikes on your sleeves.

However, we're living in a time where the like button dictates what cool is. Nobody puts a selfie on Facebook and is satisfied with absolutely zero likes. The only reason we use social media is to succumb to our voyeuristic side. We want validation. We want people to see our haircut and comment, "What a cute haircut!" I'm no scientist but I do wholeheartedly believe that people intrinsically need to be loved. We need validation. We need to feel appreciated. We need to feel like the haircut we just got is cute, and we need to feel like the work we've been doing is useful. Everybody wants to be liked, and everybody wants to be cool.

Over the weekend, my friends threw me a surprise 18th birthday party -- and of course, I Snapchatted the whole thing. The next day, I saw something on Twitter that piqued my interest; A friend of mine tweeted, "How y'all be on Snapchat sometimes: I need everyone to know I was lit tonight. They have to know everything I did. I'm fun. I am fun." Now, I know this probably was not specifically about my party, my snaps, or me...but it got me thinking. Why do I feel the need to update the world about how cool and amazing my life is?

I've had social media since I was 11, and all throughout my younger and more vulnerable years I have used it as my non-private diary. I feel like it is so, so, so cathartic to write something for no one in particular, but still knowing that it's going to be seen. It's like I'm putting my feelings out into the void, but having the comfort in realizing that someone is going to acknowledge my feelings, whether or not they realize it.

It's because I need validation. I'm not a cool girl who doesn't need anyone else's approval. I need everyone's approval. (Not everyone, literally.) I do need attention and validation, though -- I think everyone does. I think that's something that will forever go hand in hand with social media.

That's why I feel the need to let everyone know I am having fun. It's because I deeply want to be validated, I want to know that everyone else knows that I'm enjoying my existence.

Nobody will ever post a photo on Instagram just for themselves. Everybody wants to be cool. Nobody will ever say, "I need to be liked. I need your validation. I need to feel cool." Everybody wants to rule the world.