I’ve never lived in a world that wasn’t dominated by social media.
I’ve heard a lot about the prehistoric times before Instagram and TikTok took over the world, but it’s hard to imagine something that you haven’t witnessed for yourself. Contrary to what adults might tell me, I’m very much aware that people once had to write letters and possibly wait months before hearing back. Now, the only thing that you have to wait months for is someone to unblock you. Over the years, we’ve found new and innovative ways to share our lives. Accessible if you have a device and the internet, social media found a way to become something we can’t live without.
Our generation is filled with people who’ve learned to make a difference by sharing their lives with the world. They’ve changed their own lives by discovering new ways to entertain, altering the perception of what a traditional career path might mean. Social media quickly became an outlet. For many during the pandemic, it was a way to submerge themselves in something other than the depressing reality.
Adults are always there to present us with sad statistics on how social media is negatively affecting us. Depression and anxiety are inevitable if we give in, they say. If we keep letting ourselves believe in these false illusions, the decline is just waiting for us. I know without a doubt that if I looked up social media’s effects on self-image, all I would find are daunting statistics that quote people with PhDs and their endless reasons for why not to use it.
For a society that says it cares about its youth, it fails to care about the things that we care about. We get hated for looking at influencers we’ll never know, and we get criticized for not caring about the world around us. Has anyone stopped to think that maybe it’s not us ignoring the world, but trying to figure out a way to better ourselves in it? Or, at the very least, trying to make ourselves feel better in this chaotic life?
Even if not, it’d be nice not to be constantly judged for our actions. Our teenage years are some of the most impactful times of our lives. It’s when we need to be supported as we make mistakes and figure out what makes us, us. No one should feel pressured by people pressuring them to not feel pressured. That’s too much pressure for even the most composed people to handle. Managing this duress creates a sense of awareness around your actions and helps to curate the life that you feel is meaningful. Self-awareness is a very delicate thing. It can easily become the one obstacle separating you from realizing how toxic a habit has gotten or understanding how much you have grown.
Feeling the need to validate yourself, through social media or elsewhere, because someone else has chosen to do something different than you, might be something to rethink. We put enough pressure on ourselves, so when we put it on each other, we’re unknowingly forcing our insecurities on them. Though we use social media to share our lives with each other, it’s important to intentionally and mindfully regulate how much you're letting someone else shape your perception of yourself. Perhaps the most important thing is not what or who fuels your self-image, but how you let that image take hold of you.