WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, Tumblr and etc. You are bound to have a profile on at least one of these platforms, if not all them. Social media can be so fun and useful. You can connect with friends and family across the globe and it is even a great business tool. We live in a world where people are constantly sharing everything about themselves all over the internet for everyone to see.
It has become the norm for people to spend a lot of time scrolling through timelines, feeds and dashboards. It’s very easy to get caught up in it and sometimes, it can reach a point where it’s unhealthy. It can be very addictive, which could potentially result in negative behavior.
I’m not saying that I’m not addicted, because I am, I know that, and I am willing to admit it. Personally, I don’t even think being addicted is the worst, but it’s about how addicted you are. The amount of times I’ve heard people get excited and planning out what they’re going to post on their profiles is impossible to count.
I never understand it when I see people living their life for social media. If you find yourself planning out the different pictures you’re going to take while on vacation, or planning captions weeks before you even take a picture, you might want to reevaluate your social media habits. It’s one thing to be checking social media frequently and posting all the time, but you shouldn’t be doing things simply because you think they’ll get you the most likes. Those likes don’t matter. They’ll satisfy your ego for a day at most, and then you’ll be thinking of how to get even more attention with your next post.
This article isn’t telling you to stop posting, but it is here as a reminder for you to live your life and do what you want because you want to, and not because it’ll be a cool Instagram post that you know will get you the most “hearts.” Are your likes going to land you that internship? Eh, probably not. Are they going to make you stick out to potential employers? Not at all, but that ridiculous picture you posted with the caption “did it for the gram” might make them question your decision making. Are your friends going to change their opinion of you? If they do, they’re not your friends. Is your mom going to throw you out on the streets if you don’t reach 100 likes? No – at least I’d hope not.
So, if you’ve got a getaway trip coming up, and all you can do is think about how active your social media will be, and how jealous you’ll be making everyone with all of your travel pictures, think about what you’re doing. You should only be posting and sharing for you and for your own happiness. This applies for when you’re not going away, but you’re still preoccupied with what to post. Just be mindful next time you get super excited about likes and comments, instead of actual experiences themselves.
I hope that people can read this and think about their habits on social media to help change them for the better. Posting is fun; seeing other posts is fun too, but it shouldn’t be all you focus on. It’s your real life that you should be worried about, and not what it looks like your life is like through a screen.
