I believe that social media is one of the biggest influences in the world, but if you think about it, does it really influence us teenagers in the right way? Are you aware of the risks and how it impacts your feelings? You say that it helps you keep in touch with friends and get online friends but you might not know it because it is in your subconscious mind.
Let’s start with Coachella – the one festival teens wish to go to with friends in the future. We all see people posting pictures that are perfectly taken with great angles, lighting, and filters. This makes you want to constantly check Instagram and their snap stories because this was me in the April break. I would check my social media around 5-6 times a day and wish I was there. One day, I came across an article on Buzzfeed and it changed me. You could see the realities of Coachella and it was far from what people had been posting. Firstly, it is located in Palm Springs, California, which is a desert, meaning it was hot, with no phone signal (high chances of getting lost) and everything was so overpriced. The people who you thought had a ‘perfect life’ in Coachella actually had their struggles. They had to put a lot of effort into how they looked because people say it’s for the music, but was it really for music?
Moving on, according to a Health US News in 2017, 49% of people who follow health/food accounts on Instagram have orthorexia. As a result, you can see that people are trying way too hard to be perfect and if you feel like you are not, it can lead to feeling melancholic, depressed and down. Social media is creating a negative view of your self-image. What everyone should keep in mind is that there are many Photoshopped pictures, and you shouldn’t feel bad just because your picture doesn’t look that way. One report by the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK surveyed 1500 young people, ages 12 to 24, who claimed they have anxiety, depression and low self-esteem due to social media. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat have the most impact on mental health. These are caused when half the things on social media aren’t real, so is all of this even worth it? Additionally, even though it might not be a mental health disorder, you might not even realize that you are addicted to your phone and social media. I’ve come across videos on Dr.Phil where girls couldn’t let their phones out of their sight. Do you want to be like that in the near future?
Lastly, it creates unrealistic expectations. For example, if you don’t get enough likes, you feel like your hopes are not met. Linking back to my first point, as people post pictures it sets expectations to what a certain individual should be up to and when he or she can’t, they feel like they are missing out big things. This eventually could make the person feel unaccomplished in life or unsuccessful. You constantly want to post, share and express what’s going on in your life because you think you are expected to do so. This is dangerous for yourself because random people could get your location, find you and possibly put your life in danger. I’ve also seen friendships being broken just because of the competition between friends on who get more likes. The question here is, ‘Are likes more important than friendships?’
People say that they go on social media for inspiration, to keep in touch with friends and to stay up to date. Social media apps like Pinterest could even help you with your school work or projects. Therefore, it has the potential to do many great things, but a large percentage of people use it during their spare time. Personally, I do it too, but I think it’s wrong because instead of scrolling through your phone and feeling sad just because you’re not like him/her, you could be doing something that positively impacts yourself and your surroundings.
In conclusion, this is why I strongly urge not to be blinded by the social world and reduce the time you spend on there. It makes individuals believe in false reality and brings their confidence down at the same time. The whole idea was to help you with your life but now that it is destroying, I suppose you should no longer use as much. Try it out, maybe you’ll thank me later!
Cite This Article As: Glenda Huang. "Social Media is unrealistic." International Youth Journal, 12. June 2018.
Link To Article: https://youth-journal.org/social-media-is-unrealistic
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