Social Media

What makes a person beautiful? Marilyn Monroe once said, “To all the girls that think they are ugly because they are not a size 0, you're the beautiful one. It’s society as a whole that is the ugly one.”I wish she could see us, girls, now, she would be so disappointed. Social media has taken the idea of beauty and raked through the muck. I fall victim to the unrealistic beauty expectations of social media daily and it really damages my, and many people's mental health. Instagram these days has just turned into people posting pictures they think other people want to see. It is a form of validation through some random persons double click.

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There is a science to getting the most amount of validation one can. You post at a certain time, with a certain filter that makes you look completely different, with a certain clever caption. People these days are not even fulfilled with the likes, they post things that they think will get comments too because any random person can double-click, but it takes a true friend to comment saying you look ‘gorg’ or some other random variation of a compliment. People understand friendships these days to be all over social media, and it is giving this society a false hope as to what a friend truly is.

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I came into school freshman year a full subject to this distorted idea. I had snapchat ‘streaks’ with about thirty people. I never posted before seven-thirty at night in total fear that I would not get the same likes as all my other ‘friends’. I now wish I could fully say “who cares what people think” because I still really do, but not the extent as I used to. I now rarely post on my social media, but I still care what other people do. I still spend numerous hours of the day comparing my pathetic life to people on social media. It is not fair and I hate it.

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In attempt to try and remove myself from this self-loathing community, I have been periodically deleted all of my social media apps from my phone so I do not look at them as much. I do this especially during the week when I have classes and assignments due. Taking break from social media has really challenged me to figure out what beauty and happiness truly are, with having people on social media tell me.

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I am not an expert on much, but I can see how much social media infects the lives of people around me. Sometimes I will hangout with friends and they just sit on social media as I am trying to have a conversation with them. Like scrolling through Twitter and Instagram is a necessary part of life. I am here to say it isn’t. It has been hard, but cutting back on my social media use has really helped me. I see beauty for what it truly is in real life and not what it looks like through someone else camera.