I have seen and read enough to say, with all conviction, that social media has serious potential to cause damage to a person’s self-esteem, self-perception, and overall quality of life.

There are many, many posts, articles, documentaries, and the works about how young people are susceptible to depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia issues due in great part to spending too much time on social media.

It still seems surreal to me how apps like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook which were once used for sharing vacation pictures with friends, following updates from celebrities, and networking with your classmates have all turned into the perfect medium to experience “fear of missing out” when your friends hang out without you, subtweets when someone is mad at you, and public feuds between people in the comments section.

Why did such a cool idea go from bringing people together to actively tearing them apart?

There are places in the real world where strangers say hello to you as you walk by, people look you in the eye during conversation without stealing glances at their phone, and being nice is just a norm.

However, in the cyber world, there is this common practice of being rude to people who do not share the same opinion you do, being inappropriate without shame because it’s your account, and coming up with shady captions for your posts when you want to give someone the stink eye.

Looking back on your social media encounters, you may have seen a twitter feud or been subtweeted, or maybe even posted some type of cryptic message so that someone would see it and know that it was about them.

Is it childish? Yes

Have you ever done it before? Probably

The power we are given by having our own social media account makes us think that we aren’t so responsible for the things that we post or say because you can “post whatever you want”.

While that may be true in theory, it’s questionable whether you should.

The consensus is that every individual is responsible for their behavior in public and most people wouldn’t say aloud everything they tweet about so why do the rules suddenly change on social media?

There’s already a conversation going on about this and many celebrities have chimed in with their opinions and pleas to stop cyber bullying and spread positivity, not hate, on social media platforms.

But at times this trending topic seems to be more talk than action.

It’s disconcerting how easy it is to preach one thing and not do it. We may all be guilty of this at some point. We’ve known since preschool that being nice is good and being mean is bad. We know that if someone is sitting alone, it would be nice to strike a conversation or invite them to sit with you. It is kind to compliment people and to treat others how you want to be treated.

These behaviors, while simple, are rare.

Nowadays, retweeting someone or sharing a photo of someone’s lost dog may get considered as being good deeds. The world is changing and taking societal norms with it.

People are not only acting more bold, rude, and/or insensitively on the internet than what they do in real life but they are also more susceptible to the media exposure.

The perceivable changes in how social media alters our moods or behaviors show us that what we say or are exposed to on social media may have a deep impact on our lives or someone else’s. Self-esteem is fragile and negativity through any medium is a threat.

The best thing that any millennial can do to combat this epidemic of social media overexposure and its adverse effects is to just be kind.

It really is as simple as that.