Many teens experience the pressure to be active on social media. Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…just to name a few. We expect ourselves to produce great content, and a lot of it, all the time. We worry about captioning things just right, and wonder whether or not people will notice certain things that are “wrong” with a photo. Sure, there are perks to social media, such as providing an easy platform to share photos, thoughts, and even news, but is it all really worth the negative mental and social effects?
More often than not, social media gives us unreasonable expectations for ourselves. There is a pressure to look perfect, act perfect, achieve the perfect body, have a perfect friend group, and gain enough likes and followers. These ridiculously high standards make self-loathing too easy, when in reality that shouldn’t be the case.
When we look at social media, it’s important for us to remember that we are not getting the full picture. We don’t get the photos of having a lonely night in a dorm room, or eating pizza alone for dinner, or crying over a hookup that didn’t work out. If photos and captions were honest, we would be getting entirely different senses of each other’s lives.
We can’t expect ourselves to always be happy and look perfect, because NOBODY is. Next time you find yourself getting down about social media, try to remember these four tips
1.Recognize that you are seeing the highlights, not the full picture.
No matter how fun a certain photo looks, there’s a really good chance that night wasn’t perfect.
2. Unfollow (or block) people that give you bad vibes.
If every time you look at a pic of Gigi Hadid you start feeling bad about yourself, stop following her!
3. Follow feeds that make you happy. Maybe you’re foodie or a yogi, or you like funny videos or art. Whatever your thing is, follow people whose content will make you happy.
4. Take a break. If social media ever feels like it’s causing more harm than good for your mental or physical health, take a break. Seriously. The world won’t stop spinning.