I love and hate social media for two reasons: it connects you with people in ways like never before, but it allows you to compare your life with the seemingly perfect lives of everyone else. I had completely forgotten about this love/hate relationship until I downloaded Twitter again after a two month hiatus (haha I've never used that word before) and immediately got caught up in the endless stream of glamorized pictures and popular tweets. I flashed back to high school and the feeling of rejection flooded through me. I was comparing my life with girls' who looked flawless over social media and seemed to get a lot of attention. I got incredibly jealous and for what?? Because people were commenting, liking and tweeting their pictures? Well let me tell you, those likes, comments and favorites, don't matter. They may seem like they do, but they don't reflect anything about ourselves.
What matters is your character, your intelligence, the people you love, your goals and your family. There is SOOO much more to life than what's on the Internet. I didn't realize these things until I got to college and reality kicked in. College was where I finally grew in to my skin and began to love myself for who I was. I made friends who talked about intellectual issues and didn't care about superficial things. They helped me understand the larger picture.
Your future employer won't care who liked your Instagram picture so why do we care so much? I think it's because each generation craves attention more and more, we are becoming more self absorbed as technology advances and it's hard not to give in to social pressures. It's harder said than done and I partially think I wrote this post for myself more than anything, but hopefully someone else takes something out of it. I know my life has been so much more enjoyable and productive for the last few months while trying to stay away from social media. I challenge you all to spend less time staring at your smart phone and spend more time laughing with the people you love, reading or exercising. It's good for the soul I tell ya, and it works :)
-Nika
