We have grown up in an era where social media has grown from the simplicity of AOL to having every single platform available in the palm of our hands. Social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook have become ways of entertainment for us millennials, yet it is questionable whether this 24/7 internet stimulation is healthy, both for our minds and our wallets.
It is undeniable that social media has negative effects on our mind, especially on those of us who are self-diagnosed addicts. But in a world where the ‘glamourous life’ of our favorite celebrities and bloggers are in front of our faces all the time, it’s easy to feel that your life doesn’t measure up. Especially when it comes to your wardrobe, make-up, and home décor. Because when you are constantly bombarded with pictures of Kylie’s lips, the OOTD of famous fashion bloggers, and the studio apartments that would make even Carrie Bradshaw drool, you start to want that life for yourself. And keeping up with the Kardashians certainly comes at a price.
I, like many young people, have found it instinctual to consume as a way to make myself feel better. Being in college comes with its highs, but we can all say that there are some pretty intense lows. As colleges students, we are constantly being told how small we are in the world and with everything new going on every second of the day, it’s no wonder that students use Instagram as a form of escapism. Spending money and focusing so singularly on achieving a ‘look’ worthy of Instagram appreciation can be a way to relieve stress in order feel like you have control over at least one aspect of who you are.
It is hard to deal with internships, classes, and of course boy drama; but a sale at Free People can make you forget about it all. Buying a boho romper may get you closer to looking like Kendall Jenner, but eventually living in an app is going to catch up with us ‘real people’. A YouTube haul can make you feel like you are watching your best friend shop and review your favorite brands, but using spending as a way to relieve anxiety isn’t as harmless as the fantasy of Instagram has lead us to believe.
Because much to our disbelief, Instagram is not an accurate portrayal of real lives and real people. Instagram is like Tumblr in a way, it is a purely visual way of advertising your interests. The blogs that we covet to embody, whether they belong to celebrities or people that have gained fame through Instagram, they aren’t telling the whole story of the people behind them. They are showing their audience what they want to see and we as young people should not take everything that we see at face value. Sure everyone wants to have the best clothes and the best makeup in order to have the best life, but our generation needs to realize that there is so much more to being successful than looking the part on social media.
The models that we see on Instagram who have hundreds of thousands of followers could very well not have a lot of money, but they are just spending a lot on clothes and expensive cameras. Instagram and social media only give us snapshots of what these people want us to know about them, so why worry about having their look when you could be focusing on how you can better your life? Life is so much more than hauls and tutorials, and while we are only human for getting sucked into the virtual world, our generation desperately needs to find forms of self-identification other than what our followers can see.