Like most people my age, I’ve been using social media since about junior high. First starting with MySpace or Facebook, but then moving on to Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. While social media does connect individuals to millions around the world, there are also some damaging aspects that social media can have on younger people. When scrolling through Instagram in the seventh grade, I found myself comparing my looks to others. The rise of “Instagram Models” also gave rise to lower self-esteem for girls who do not fit that mold like myself. My stomach wasn’t flat enough and my legs weren’t long enough. And since I grew up using social media, these measurements of self-worth have affected me into my young-adulthood. The tendency to compare is natural, but social media gives way to a whole new world of comparison.
Young boys and girls see popular people on social media, and if they don’t look like them then they therefore think of themselves as inferior. Some “insta-famous” people preach self-love and self-care, which is all good and fine, but those who have a lot of followers tend to have the ‘ideal’ lifestyle; nice house, nice clothes, nice body. Now, I’m not trying to bash on people that make money off of social media, a job’s a job. But those who don’t necessarily have that life can tear themselves down when they see the ‘perfect’ life on Instagram. I’m all for self-love, I’ve struggled with self-esteem issues from a very young age. And those issues stem from my tendency to compare myself to others, which is made more of a prevalent issue the more I use social media. And this problem is a reality for a lot of young people around the world.
When you compare middle school-aged people now to middle school-aged people seven or eight years ago, there’s a huge difference; looks. Middle schoolers a decade ago went through what most call “the awkward stage”. You know, the blue sparkly eyeshadow smeared across the eyelid with stripes of blush across the cheeks and pink lipstick ON THE BRACES. Yeah, that awkward stage. But within the past four years, most young teenagers, teenage girls in particular, have learned to bypass the awkward stage. This generation grew up with social media from a very young age. And with makeup gurus taking over Instagram in the past few years, young people have been able to learn from them and skip over the grossly bright eyeshadow and go straight into blinding highlights and contoured faces. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, I started using makeup in middle school but didn’t have the tools to become decent at it until junior year of high school. The younger generation has started to use the tools they’ve been given to transform themselves into the people they see on social media. And this leads back to the tendency of comparison that is caused by social media.
The real question is is that really healthy? I can say from personal experience, that my tendency to compare myself to others has really been a detriment to my self-esteem and my self-worth. Social media has created a generation of people wanting to be like other people, which isn’t the healthiest way to live life. Be thankful for what and who you are, because you were made to be yourself, not someone else.