Social Media - The downfall of the 21st century

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It affects us all, social media. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Youtube – every single one will affect you in a type of way if you aren’t careful. They can affect our relationships, mental health, perspective on everything. Why have we given so much power to something which ultimately, is absolutely meaningless? 

Who cares if you get 2 likes on a post or 200,000 likes on a post? We all end up in the same place, right? (that’s very morbid, I’m aware). Here’s the thing though, too many of us get so disheartened when we don’t get a certain number of likes – why? I’m asking why because I definitely cannot answer that question myself, it's something that so many of us do but don’t actually understand why we do it. 

You scroll through your news feed seeing pictures of airbrushed models and ‘influencers’ and wonder why they are so lucky to get so many likes AND earn money from posting a picture. Would you really want to have to fake how you look and appear just to get likes and money though? What kind of life is that really?

Don’t get me wrong, I like to put on a bit of make-up and look like a ‘better version of me’ I think we all do that, and realistically who is going to post a picture of themselves that is unflattering? Nobody. But it’s one thing to put on makeup to cover some of your imperfections and enhance your favourite features, it's another thing to virtually enhance and change your face. There are apps now that allow you to edit your bone structure, give you abs, turn a straight face into a smile....I mean, what!? 

The world has gone crazy with social media and I think it's important to sometimes take a step back and realise what’s going on around you. When you’re on the train to work in the mornings, take 10 minutes to look up from your phone…I guarantee you’ll be greeted by every other person around you glued to their phone screens. That’s not normal, or maybe it is, maybe this is the new normal and we all just have to get used to it.

I took 2 weeks off of Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Youtube a month or so ago and when I say it was the best thing I could have done in that moment, honestly, I mean it. It’s important to appreciate what you have right in front of you and in my opinion, social media can blur those things out and make it difficult to see.

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