As a member of Gen-Z, social media is very prominent in my life. Everyone around me uses social media daily. Whether it's Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tik Tok, or whatever your app of choice is, social media is a prevalent part of the day.
There are many unofficial "rules" to social media. We only post photos that make ourselves look good. We need to balance out how many selfies we post versus group photos. Each new picture we post should go with the overall "theme" of our Instagram account. There is no true reason for these ground rules for our posts, yet we follow them religiously anyway. On so many occasions I have taken a photo I really like, and then was faced with disappointment that I couldn't post it to my social media because of one of these rules that we have in place.
Over the past few months, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the pressure and standards that we follow with social media. I feel an internal obligation to post photos just to receive validation from my friends that the picture is good? The whole idea of social media was to connect with others, but it has now been twisted into something else.
Now that these internal standards have been set, it is a difficult task to break them down. I have spent so long taking photos with the intention of catering them to my Instagram, that now as I reroute my brain to take pictures out of enjoyment I'm facing difficulties. Despite the obstacles in changing my mindset, I feel it is an important thing for us all to do.
I believe social media should be a peaceful place where we can document our lives and share it with others. There should be no pressure to post the "right" thing anymore. There are so many more pressing issues that we can be putting our thoughts towards rather than how your social media aesthetic looks.
It is very difficult to alter this mindset about social media. I have been working on it for months and I still have moments where I become disappointed that I didn't get as many likes or comments as I wanted. However, by actively working to relieve this social media pressure, we will find more peace and comfort in using social media in the way in which it was intended.