The Future Doesn’t Look Pretty

Social media has created a generation of individuals who curate content that benefits their social mirror. They aim to post photo’s and share posts based on what they want other people to perceive of them. I have to admit that I often put heavy thought into my social media posts. I think a lot about how those on the receiving end will view what I am sharing. It’s gotten so bad that for one of my classes this semester, we are required to share Instagram posts in order to get participation marks. Seeing as I did not want the aesthetics of my current profile to be affected and I wanted to maintain the same theme, I created a second profile just for posts for this class. Although I went as far as creating a second account just for one of my classes, I do realize that those measures were not necessary. I have completely fallen for the way today’s generation treats social media. I often come across people’s profile in my explore page on Instagram and immediately become obsessed with their posts, thinking that we could be great friends. We fail to realize that the content posted is a completely different version than who they truly are. Most active social media users of our generation focus on including ‘yeezys’ and their ‘saint Pablo’ t-shirts into their posts just to gain more likes to satisfy their insecurities. Articles are consistently criticizing how people dress and focusing on what designer label celebrities are wearing. Although I don’t have a clear idea of what this social media movement will do to us and what kind of fictional dystopia it is pushing us towards, I do believe that it will lead to a negative impact on our current generation. As a result of the path that we are on, I believe that we are heading towards a dystopian society where the focus will be on what we wear, how we look rather than our individuality. Although the world is shifting its focus by encouraging individuals to be their true unique self, I fear that today’s generation care too much about how their physical and social image are viewed by their followers. When it comes down to it, we all have faults, but the use of the internet and social media allow us to cover them up, or be criticized by them whenever they are revealed. Our generation takes whatever necessary steps to avoid being criticized. They do so by meticulously choosing what to post and share and as a result we have become overly sensitive to constructive criticism. We are afraid to hear the truth about our individual insecurities so we dig them deep into our subconscious. I fear that a part of our future dystopian society will include individuals of our generation going to extreme measures to hide their insecurities, whether it be plastic surgery or dishing out cash you don’t have on unnecessary material items. Today’s generation, including myself, are already going to crazy lengths just to have a post that portrays us to be something completely different than who we truly are and I fear that it will only get worse.