When I walk around the Chenango-Champlain Collegiate Center on a Sunday morning, I hear groups of people recapping their previous night, as they demand their friends “like” their newest Instagram picture. They say things like, “Crap, I only have 47 likes. I thought I looked good.”
Ever since I got to college, I have realized the serious negative effects that social media can have on an individual’s self-confidence. Between how many people have “friended” you on Facebook, liked your profile picture and retweeted your tweet, we no longer need to approve of our own life. We allow others to do so.
I understand there are benefits to these different forms of social media. For instance, the connections that are established through Facebook, Twitter and now Snapchat are astonishing. They have been the foundation for social movements and political campaigns and they make it easy to keep in touch with friends and loved ones who are far away. However, at times, social media seems to exist just to present a facade of happiness.
It is so easy to sit in our rooms and complain about the problems in our lives as we stalk our friends on Facebook. We try to understand where they find their happiness — how are they always smiling? Why do they always have lots of people around them? We become dissatisfied with our own lives. A confident person would have the power to turn the jealousy on and off in their mind — but when that jealousy is being tested whenever they open their laptop or check their phone, it is impossible to not give into the jealousy.
Social media was a part of my life for most of my teenage years, but it wasn’t until college that I realized the issue. Why? Because it was not until recently that these different feeds have become so advanced. Facebook now allows you to set notifications for whenever an individual is tagged or uploads a photo. It allows you to see how many people have not only viewed your message, but also ignored your message. Snapchat ranks your friendships with emojis based on how often you “snap” them. The advances in social media have only been enhancing the unhealthy thoughts generated as we scroll through our news feed.
I fear that as our generation continues to age and social media develops more, we will lose our ability to determine our own happiness. We will constantly question if staying in and doing work was a smart decision, because those girls who went out looked like they had such a great time, or if we should be at the gym more, because Brianna lost so much weight and she is getting so much attention because of it.
At this rate, is there any way to go back and regain the confidence in determining and proudly acknowledging our happiness, or is there only room for self-doubt? I believe that if our social media will continue to only become more accessible, we need to nurture our lives outside the Internet right along with it.