Do you ever think that someone has a perfect and ideal life because of their social media? Humans in this day and age only show their happy and so-called perfect life on social media. People pretend to be someone they are not to seek validation from their friends, community, and the world. 

Do your social media platforms reflect the real you? 

Social media sets people to a standard no one should have. Teenagers and even adults feel like they need approval from the world and their friends. In the 21st century, people care more about what others think of them than what they feel about themselves. Kids, teenagers, and even some adults feel as if they post something not approved by society, then they feel like they are less. They feel lower because they aren’t as popular or liked by people, so they don’t feel crucial to the world.   

On social media, you never actually understand the person or what they are going through. People display a fake side of themselves, so they aren’t bullied. Social Media holds people to a high standard, and if you don’t follow that standard, people make fun of you or even tear you down to the point where you don’t want to be in the world. 

In the documentary film “The Social Dilemma,” creators and ex-employees of social media talked about how depression and anxiety rates skyrocketed from 2011 to 2013. In the year 2011, more people were admitted to hospital from harming themselves than before. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter affect your mental health and tear you down because you look at people and see that they have nothing wrong with them. 

Social media is a popularity game. If someone doesn’t have enough followers, likes, or comments, they aren’t as good as a “popular” student or teenager. If you don’t have enough likes or comments, you delete the photo, so you are not made fun of or judged for being less than someone. By deleting pictures and starting to care about those things, insecurities start.

“The Social Dilemma” discusses how the people behind social media try to make the apps more addicting and want to tear you down. Everything on social media is tracked. What tracking means is whatever you do on social media is looked at and is taken to make the app more for your liking. People see what you look at, how long you spend on a photo, what you are interested in, etc. If you spend 3 minutes on an image of a model or a teenager you think is pretty/handsome, you want to be like her/him. By stalking people’s Instagrams’, you are tearing yourself down and putting yourself in a bad state of mind. 

When you want to be like someone, you start pretending to be someone you aren’t. People also pretend to be nicer than they are to gain followers and popularity, so they aren’t torn down. Freshmen, Jon Silvestri (9) said, “People act nicer and cooler on social media than they are in real life.”

Social media platforms have taken over our lives, and now social media is not a platform to express yourself. It is to compete with others to feel better about yourself. “The Social Dilemma,” said, “we evolved to care about whether other people in our tribe think well of us or not ’cause it matters.” 

Let people know the real you and stop pretending to be happy 24/7. Everyone has bad days, and no one is perfect in this world, even if you think someone is. Social media tries to change you and make you believe you aren’t good enough, but you are. The version of yourself you pretend to soon becomes your reality. When you pretend to be someone you’re not, you must stay consistent now on faking everything. 

Take a second and ask yourself, does your social media reflect who you are in real life? If you aren’t the same person, ask yourself why. Take a moment to fix that and improve yourself from here. Stop seeking approval and admire your beauty and talent.