Social Media, Self Image, and Standards
How Technology Has Impacted My Life
Unless you count the daily after-school episode of my favorite show, and a movie on the weekends, technology was never a huge part of my childhood. Growing up I would spend most of my off-time playing outside, dancing, reading, or enjoying time with my family. The appeal of technology and the idea of social media or phones never really struck me until my older sister got her first phone when she was 10 and I was almost 9 years old. I would always watch her play games, text her friends, and use funny filters on Instagram, and I couldn’t wait until it was my turn.
I got my first phone on Christmas, a week before my tenth birthday. Looking back now, I kind of wonder if that was a bit early to be exposed to such an impacting piece of technology at that young of an age. For the first year and a half of having a phone, I don’t recall using it too often, and when I did it was mostly for playing useless games or talking with my friends who had also gotten their first phones. My first exposure to social media was when I downloaded TikTok about halfway through fifth grade, and then Instagram at the beginning of sixth grade. Unlike a lot of people I knew, I didn’t have any parental restrictions set up on my phone so I was free to access any apps I wanted. Even with this freedom, my parents would still monitor my screen time and my posts.
Fast forward to now, and I still avidly use Instagram and TikTok, along with other apps such as Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, and even Facebook. Social media has become such a devoted part of my life, so much so that it is built into my everyday activities. Although I don’t necessarily believe this to be a completely negative thing, I can see how it definitely is sometimes. Hours are spent almost every day snapchatting people, (some of whom I don’t even know) updating my own social medias, and also just mindlessly scrolling through an endless amount of strangers’ posts. This has slowly morphed into a regular thing to the point where I don’t really step back to look at the time I am spending every day dedicated solely to using social media. I hate to admit it, but my phone is usually the first thing I use when I wake up, the last thing I use before bed, and used for hours during the day between that. I believe that too much of anything has the potential to affect someone in more ways than one, and looking at myself and the people closest to me, I can see that.
If you take all of my social media profiles combined, I follow over 1000 different people and see their content every single day. I would say I actually know about 5–10% of these people, and the rest are either celebrities, influencers, people who I have mutual friends with, or just people that post content I enjoy or am interested in. Even though the vast majority of these people are complete strangers to me, I am still choosing to see pieces of their life every day when I open Instagram, TikTok, or any other social media platform. What I see from behind my screen is only a micro-fraction of somebody’s actual life, yet I will find myself comparing my own experiences and self-image to an almost completely fake reality I experience when I turn on my phone. Constantly being bombarded with images and videos of flawless people living a “perfect life” can make it seem like I could never be considered beautiful or worthy until I reach this quite literally impossible standard that so many people have been manipulated into believing is key to a fulfilled life.
Considering the negative effects social media has had on me, some may wonder why I still choose to spend hours every day viewing and engaging with content. I can understand this, because why am I choosing to be constantly exposed to something that has the capability of worsening my self-outlook and mood? Besides the fact that a lot of the stuff I see on social media I actually enjoy, I find it quite difficult to tear myself from the idea of a perfect life portrayed through influencers and celebrities on social media. I get almost addicted to seeing the latest “trending” things that people are posting about and wonder how I can apply them to my own life. Feeling like I can relate with what is “cool” gives me a sense of self-satisfaction, even if it’s just temporary (which is usually the case.) Just recently I have started to notice the effects this has had on my sleep, mood, relationships, and self-perception. An example of this is when I’m scrolling through social media and see all these stunning girls who I immediately compare to myself. It sometimes feels like I am the only person that will never truly hold the same worth as everybody else because I have imperfections and they don’t. At some point, this caused a large sense of resentment toward people that are complete strangers to me, which affected my mental health, and the way I was treating the people around me.
I truly believe that social media users are not trying to make others feel worse about themselves, but rather it’s the standard we have set as a society displaying the idea that we should appear perfect to each other. Even as a user myself, I always try to take the best photos or videos, and even edit them before I post them to any of my social medias. I have spent a lot of time trying to ensure that I am viewed a certain way by everyone that comes across my social media accounts, but I have recently started realizing that at the end of the day I have no control over how people think of me, and it is a freeing feeling. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that comparing myself to others on social media is useless and unneeded, because just like everyone else, I am worthy of feeling whole for who I am, and even the prettiest or most talented person couldn’t change that. Once more people start realizing that they have an amazing life to live beyond their social media accounts, I genuinely believe that the world will become a healthier, happier place, where we don’t have to worry about fitting in a box to feel deserving of amazing things.
