Today’s generation needs to realize there is so much more to life than social media. I speak from my own experience that we all care way too much about what people think of our Instagrams, twitter accounts, and Facebook profile pictures than who we are as a person. Does this filter look good? Do I look skinny enough? Can you like and comment? Why do we subject ourselves to this level of judgement I ask myself, and the horrible answer is that we enjoy it. We enjoy the thrill it gives us to take an unreal Instagram and to get hundreds of likes. This thrill is the exact thing that is ruining our lives right before our eyes, this thrill is causing depression, addiction, insecurities and so many more horrible things to our current generation that is only going to continue to worsen before our eyes.
1. Driving Distraction: Social Media is a leading cause of distraction in our day to day lives, while we do homework, when we’re in class, at dinner, or at the gym we are constantly swiping our thumb down as we refresh our social media accounts. I myself am a huge victim of this, I sometimes wish someone would just take my phone away from me and not give it back to me until I am completed with what I am doing because of the level of distraction.
2. Obsession/Addictive: We are ADDICTED to the excitement and thrill social media gives us, we like the feeling we get when we have a good Instagram or get lots of likes or favorites on something. It’s an automatic reassurance and boost of happiness that we enjoy and crave on a weekly basis.
3. Comparing our lives to others: Judgement, we are constantly surrounded by it but when it comes to social media it is a constant battle field of whether our lives meet the qualifications of the perfect people we see on social media. Am I skinny enough? Am I cool enough? Do I look pretty? We are constantly comparing ourselves to other people on social media whether it’s when we see a couple pic we wish to be or perfect selfie uploaded by a celebrity, we constantly are trying to outdo the next person we see and it’s an ongoing unhealthy cycle.
4. Insecurities: Social Media causes insecurities, we base our ideas of an ideal body/life based off what we see on our social media accounts, we see what models look like and other famous accounts and we judge our own bodies off of what we see. Nowadays you see girls editing their photos, whitening their teeth, smoothing their skin and so much more so they can depict a false representation of themselves but one that can be sufficient enough for the public to see.
5. Doubt: We doubt our own life decisions when we base it off of social media, when we see someone post something that we don’t necessarily have in our lives it makes us doubt what we have, and want what they are publicizing.
6. Rushing time: Time flies by fast enough and we are only making it go even faster with social media, we spend our times at parties picking the perfect filter, or taking the perfect snap story rather than enjoying the actual party, we spend countless hours staring at our phone screens rather than enjoying the precious time we have on this earth.