Social media has been linked to increases in higher levels of loneliness, envy, anxiety, depression, and narcissism. The reason why is because of what is posted on social media. It's all about celebrating things, happy moments, or anything thats not depressing, it's on there.
A Common Sense survey called Children, Teens, Media, and Body Image found that those who are active on social media stress out about how they're being perceived, and that girls are particularly vulnerable:
- 35 percent are worried about people tagging them in unattractive photos.
- 27 percent feel stressed about how they look in posted photos.
- 22 percent felt bad about themselves if their photos were ignored.
This doesn't just apply to teenagers. We worry about how a profile picture looks, or a snapchat post, or Instagram photo. After posting it we would analyze everything about the photo and be tempted to delete it. But after those hearts, likes and comments -- we start to feel better about the photo, even more so when we're being called attractive, thats just the best part. Right?
But how we look, cannot be controlled, and that's okay (I'm not talking about changing how you look with make up and plastic surgery, that's another story). So instead of finding the perfect filter -- and perfect lighting, and doing all that editing. Try to admire what you have while you still have it. You can't shrink your nose or make your jawline more shapely for that one selfie just so you can get more likes.
What's important to understand is that how you feel about yourself, is all up to you. It's not the likes, or comments. It's not your friends, coworkers or anyone. It's you.
When you're getting ready in the morning and you're looking in the mirror, it should be like common nature to see the beauty you have. So stop comparing yourself to someone whose paid to post on Instagram to model clothing and makeup. Stop posting to get the Facebook and Instagram likes.
And start loving yourself, cause you've got one body and one life. Live and walk confidently and proud of how are you and how you look. Because that's sexy and more attractive than a distorted and dishonest selfie on Instagram.
