I think that we all can agree that social media has taken over the lives of this generation whether we choose to like it or not. It’s hard to imagine that a little over ten years ago, there was no Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram.
Right off the bat, many people begin to tally up the negatives when they think about teens and social media. But those people don’t take the time to look past the negative aspects of it and see why it may be a good thing. It doesn’t mean that I don’t see the negative aspects that social media brings… But there are no doubt many reasons to love social media and many ways to use it to your advantage.
Other than the obvious reasons why social media is a great thing (entertainment, promoting businesses, and some awesome BuzzFeed videos), social media is an outlet to help you show the world exactly who you are.
Although, not too long ago, an 18 year old Australian model of the name Essena O’Neill came out that she is “quitting Instagram, YouTube, and Tumblr for good.” O’Neill is very popular on her Instagram, YouTube, and Tumblr accounts and started to make a living off of it.
“Without realising, I’ve spent majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance. Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real,” O’Neill said in her article I Don’t Like This Game.
O’Neill claims that social media is “not real” and it’s a “false reality.” She asks a series of questions in her article: “What are we promoting? Ourselves? Our best times? How great we can make our lives look online?” And I can answer all of her questions with one word: Yes. Social media is used to share the greatest memories of our lives; I mean why would we want to share the bad? The point is to show others the highlights of our life and to have fun looking at each others. There is nothing but inspiration that is spread around when we see others peoples posts. You can find inspiration for fitness, traveling, style, and almost anything and everything.
Many people fall right under the same category that O’Neill has, and thinks that social media is bringing nothing but false realities to the world. O’Neill also claims that social media is “contrived images and edited clips ranked against each other.” But why does if have to be that everyone is always in competition with one another? Why can’t people just be happy for each other rather than always striving to be “better” than each other? Because it sounds to me that people are blaming social media for their unrealistic idealisms.
If you have a social media account, it’s 100% under your control. There isn’t anyone forcing you to post anything that you don’t want to and there’s also nothing standing in your way either. Social media is solely what YOU make of it.
