Navigating Social Media

Social media can be your friend, but it can also be your greatest enemy too. 

I was lucky enough to be a part of a generation where I was growing up with the rise of social media. I still remember creating my Instagram account in my early high school years and having twitter being a prominent role throughout my high school life. Well, Twitter will always be there.

But as time went on, the perception of social media changed, and not so much for the better.

Social media has changed the way that people have viewed others and themselves. “Cancel culture” is trending on Twitter like every other day, and there is a need to validate who we are on Instagram. I know people who are so dependent on the number of likes they get on a picture. And if that post didn’t reach over 100-200 likes within a day, they take it down. I have heard many stories about people, especially in the younger generations, who get depressed because they don’t hit a certain number of likes and views on their posts or they don’t have a lot of followers. We shouldn’t let social media have so much control over our lives and yet it does.

I have learned two things from social media. The first lesson is that I can’t be anyone else but myself. I’ve never altered a picture to where my face or my body looked different from what it normally is. Nor have I tried to put on a persona that is different from who I am. I don’t seek validation from social media because I don’t need other peoples’ validations. I know my self-worth. I know that what I am posting on social media is for me, and not for anyone else. The number of followers and likes that I get doesn’t really matter to me. If someone likes my picture, they like it. If they don’t, then they can continue to scroll.

I’ve seen “Instagram famous people” being called out for posting fake pictures, altering their photos and so much more. Why are we putting pressure on ourselves to become someone that we aren’t online? It takes more time and effort to put on a persona than to be yourself. And once someone finds out the truth about who you are or what you really look like, all that fakeness will be gone. Accept who you are and let your personality shine through on Instagram.

The second lesson that I learned from social media is that there is more to life. In high school, Twitter was the main hub for people my age and it was time-consuming. I was constantly on there to see what my friends were tweeting, who to follow and it wasn’t healthy. I got off from twitter from my senior year of high school to the second semester of my sophomore year in college, where I had to make a Twitter account for a few assignments. And guess what, I didn’t miss having a twitter. It was there, but I knew that I didn’t want to be sucked into the world of Twitter like I was. So, I took Twitter, and other platforms as well into moderations. I don’t need to post my whole life on social media. There are things that should be private. And I’m not saying, “never post anything,” but there are pictures/videos that can be kept for memories and not for other people. We should be living in the moment because the present is all that we have. 

If social media becomes too much for you, then please take a break. Don’t worry, it won’t go anywhere. But it’s good to take a step back and put your phone down. I have a friend that always says, “hang up and hang out.” To this day, if I find myself so engrossed in my phone, I remind myself of that phrase, and I put down my phone and find something productive to do.