As millennials, it’s hard to dissociate ourselves from the world of technology and social media. It runs many aspects of our lives in terms of how we get things done professionally, personally and for our own leisure. The debate around our dependency on social media has always been around. With the emergence of student activism and the involvement of young people on social issues such as politics, equality, and violence, the negative perception of our use of technology has been reduced significantly. However, the personal aspect of social media in our lives is what affects the bigger chunk of us.
An important part of the world of social media that many have struggled with understanding are the faces that young people portray it. We are drawn to the ideas that we see people live out on the Internet. In many ways, seeing what other people go through platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Tumblr is a great way to inspire us to bring about change in our lives.
A big trend among YouTubers especially now are videos that allow viewers to have an insight of the routines that structure their lives. Monthly Favorites, What’s On My Phone, What I Eat in A Day, My Morning Routine – those are some of the videos that garner a big chunk of views from the younger demographic.
Many of us search for different ways to enhance our quality of life and to go about our daily routines more productively. Although there seems to be a negative perception about how social media influencers only portray the positive sides of their lives on the Internet, I do believe that it is a great way to encourage younger people to do things they never believed they could do.
Social influencers usually come from a younger age group, and for me personally, they prove to me that I can do things I never thought was possible to do. Among young girls especially, we look up to these social media accounts not to belittle ourselves in any way, but as role models that we can learn from and model behaviors that we can suit with our own beliefs and lifestyles.
The development in the idea of content creation is something that I feel pushes us, young women, to depend on each other and come together with similar ways to take care of our emotions, mind, and health. The negative parts of anything are inevitable, and we can only leave that up to the way people may perceive certain things in relation to the negative experiences they may have encountered in their own lives.
Instead of blaming it on the idea of “fake happiness” on the Internet, however, I feel that it is the Internet that allows us to build a community of happy and healthy young adults who can learn from each other.