Is Social Media Giving Off Unrealistic Expectations

For some people Social Media can be a daunting task that requires quite a bit of thought and energy. With the rise of social media there has been an increased pressure to look picture perfect at all times as well as documenting the perfect moment to show the rest of the world. Recently there has also been renewed interest in blogging that has made its way onto social media sites such as instagram. These bloggers take on topics such as fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and travel just to list a few. With their pretty filtered pictures, and seemingly flawless lives its hard not to feel as if your doing something wrong. While social media seems to be a harmless way of connecting with friends and keeping them up to date with our lives, the pressures it puts on people make it worth asking the question: is social media giving us unrealistic life expectations?

Along with unrealistic life expectations, social media has also been critisized for promoting unrealistic body goals as well. The social media site Instagram was recently in hot water for giving a subculture praising unhealthily thin bodies in the form of #thinspo and #bodygoals. Instagram has since taken action to remove and block these hashtags in order to provide users with more positive body images and goals.

This pressure does not only affect normal users, but also the media sites celebrity users. Selena Gomez is the most followed person on Instagram and has also felt the immense pressure to project the perfect life. Gomez also speaks on the pressure of maintaining a certain ratio of following to followers, as well as maintaing the followers she has and gaining new followers. Social media is a great tool but clearly needs to be used in moderation in order to keep expactations realistic.