Everywhere I look there are people using social media. I see people on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr…and the list goes on. This is happening during class, walking to and from places, while driving, while eating, while with their friends. Social media has become a huge part of popular culture. While these apps and websites were created on the idea of communication and being social, it seems that they’re more of a distraction from real people than anything else. They aren’t being used as a past time or a way to stay connected, instead, they’re becoming an unhealthy obsession for our generation.
Last year, I saw a video made by a girl who accumulated 1/2 million followers on Instagram and got an average of 100k views on her YouTube videos. She was considered "internet famous", looked up to, and idolized because of her looks and pictures she posted. While her life seemed perfect on the surface, she confessed that her social media accounts were consuming her. She depended on likes, views, and comments for her happiness. She kept wanting more and more because that's what she based her worth off of. Because of social media, she became miserable, starved herself, and stopped being herself really.
Her story made me realize how much time I spend and waste being on social media every single day. I realized just how concerned I am with getting likes, favorites, good comments, and attention. I rely on other people's reactions to my posts, whether it be quick replies to tweets, comments on Instagram, favorites, or likes, for my worth. I delete pictures off Instagram when I don't get enough likes, no matter how much I like the picture myself because I feel embarrassed or ashamed that I didn't get at least 100 likes. But it used to be 90, and before that it was 80, and before that it was 70. It's just a cycle of wanting more and more. It's ridiculous. Why do I crave validation from people online (most of which I don't know on a personal level) for how pretty, funny, or clever I am? It's a really hard question to answer. So many people feel like this, like their popularity on social media defines them, which is so sad.
On top of being fixated on the amount of attention or followers we can get online and in apps, we are also obsessive when it comes to checking in on other people. We have FOMO: fear of missing out. From the minute we wake up to the minute we go to sleep, we are checking all of our accounts. It’s an infectious cycle: wake up, check Instagram, check Twitter, check Facebook, check Tumblr, check Snapchat, then, once we make sure we’re filled in on everything that happened in the eight hours we were asleep, we go about our day. But, no day is complete without checking these accounts several times throughout the day. We check them in between classes while eating lunch, while doing homework, while eating dinner, while hanging out with friends, and even when we’re on the toilet. Then, while we lie in bed, we check them all again right before we go to sleep. Other people’s opinions, thoughts, feelings, and news constantly fill our time. It’s a never ending distraction because people never stop posting; people never stop wanting reactions and attention and likes and comments.
We just aren’t using social apps and websites for what they were designed to do. Social media shouldn’t take over your life or determine your worth. These websites and apps were meant to be a connection for people, a way to stay in touch and know what’s going on, not be an obsession and a distraction from the people that are right in front of you. What’s even more alarming is that the youngest generations are turning Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social sites into a machine that determines how much they’re worth or how pretty they are or how funny they are when they should determine that for them self.
