I woke up on a Saturday morning and went through my morning routine of at least half an hour of scrolling down Instagram and tapping through Snapchat. I realize that as I was spending my Friday night snuggled up in bed binge-watching episode after episode, my friends had gone out and had the time of their lives. I was even more envious of my other friends on Instagram or Facebook who were sunbathing by the seaside, going to amazing places, and not to forget, looking flawlessly beautiful.
That same weekend, one of my friends, whom I had been so envious of, said that she was always bored and wished her life was as exciting as mine. I was completely taken aback. There I was, greasy hair, eye bags, and not having left my apartment the whole weekend, and this girl who had the most amazing fun pictures on Instagram thought her life was boring. Um, OK, I thought to myself, was she just trying to rub it in my face?
I go to my Instagram page and realized that even I looked like I was having a lot of fun. Judging by my page, it didn't look like I was a broke college girl struggling to keep up with school and life, and had bad hair days more often than not.
I guess it's only natural to put up happy pictures for everyone to see. But whether we realize it or not, social media is a shield from the real world. It's a way to portray a life you want people to believe you have. I'm all for posting good pictures of yourself, but things are getting too out of hand if you're photoshopping every single picture and if it took 50 takes to get that "candid" shot.
Even my mom has joined the bandwagon and was complaining about how her friends look like they are having so much fun based on the pictures they upload on Wechat. Based on my mom's Wechat, it looked like she was having fun, too! With the progress of social media over the years with even our grandparents learning to use Wechat, it is not too surprising to see this happening. Seeing our friends enjoying at an event or a party drives us insane with fear of missing out on something fun. We also somehow assume from a few happy pictures of a person that they have no worries and are always happy.
Essena O'Neil, an 18-year-old Instagram celebrity, quit after declaring the reality behind her perfect photographs. Behind each beautiful photo were hundreds of takes, various photo editing apps, and endless hours of modeling. What we thought was completely authentic was anything but that. She was extremely depressed and realized the worthlessness of the life she was living, and hence she quit.
The reality of the life we portray on social media represents the natural tendency of humans to be accepted by society. The little heart signs, the likes, and views we get on our pictures or videos seem to represent our self-worth. The number of followers on Instagram and Twitter have become more worthy than our real friends.
Sometimes in the mess of all these different types of social media, we forget that none of it is real. We can't be flawless in reality. In life, there aren't any filters. The people we meet online aren't the same in real life, nor are the compliments or criticism. Social media is a fun way to keep up with your friends and family, but it shouldn't be taken so seriously. Most things online aren't authentic, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be either.