Slide into my DMs with a Soft Pretzel Fam
I truly do believe that measuring social media can have repercussive elements to it that ultimately instill unrealistic expectations of lifestyle and mental health. It’s difficult keeping up as it is in a city like Toronto. Most of the people here have cash to spend on expensive experiences, foods, and clothing. I find myself struggling to purchase a goddamn soft pretzel because of how much my rent costs monthly.
Have you ever seen that meme (here we go) that’s like: “How do people go on spontaneous trips to like Cabo? I can barely afford a spontaneous pretzel.”
^exactly people.
The truth is at times social media is like looking into the mirror and thinking “wow I wish I looked like this”. Except you’re actually able to edit your content to make it look like the facade that you need to create in order to seem relative online. And social media metrics make it so easy to find ways to belittle your value and worth based on how much feedback you’re receiving from people.
In my own experience, I used to get a lot of anxiety before posting certain pictures because suddenly people were commenting “you’re gorgeous” or “you only keep getting prettier” or “your life is amazing” (I could really use a soft pretzel right now). This made me feel a little inferior because now I had a demographic that I had to appeal to. My anxiety got so bad that I caught myself deleting pictures after the 2-minute mark (we’ve all been there so go ahead judge me I dare you). In fact, I ended up deleting social media platforms like Twitter because I couldn’t keep up with the additional stress.
Then one summer I realized that I was beginning to miss out on experiences because I was looking for exciting ones to invest in order to post them online. I slowly became depressed with my life and started measuring what people liked best about me (via Instagram) so that I could do more of that. So, I took a break. Sat down and did something I hadn’t done in a while (don’t laugh), I read a book. While I was consumed by words turning into sentences into story-lines into messages, I felt genuine happiness. But, more importantly, I felt like I was learning about something that would help me to grow into my own person. Social media often hindered my growth in that I was way too obsessed with what others wanted from me, I honestly forgot who I wanted to be.
We need to recognize when measuring social media is too much for our mental health. We need to find other measures in order to determine our self-worth and growth — ones that don’t include the opinions of others. The only opinion that matters when it comes to your value is your own.
Let’s talk about Instagram for a second. If you’re not receiving enough likes you generally feel irrelevant and upset compared to your followers. If you’re receiving too many (or a lot), then you’re constantly trying to remain relevant in order to please people you don’t even really care about that much. You’re losing either way because no option makes you completely happy with who you are. Your social media becomes a reflection of what you wish you were.
People will go to outrageous measures to be “likable”. For instance, did you know that there are apps where you can pay for followers?? That’s crazy. The crazier part? People actually use these apps. People will pay good money (enough for a soft pretzel) in order to give the illusion of popularity off. Doesn’t this make you think what the heck is up with the world? Have we really built up such a facade online that people must go to such lengths to feel good about themselves?
