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Social media is NOT reality

by Rachael – 14th May 2019

I often get frustrated when I am travelling on public transport and I hear younger people discussing the latest celeb fad diet or the lavish lifestyle someone in the public eye is seemingly living.

I grew up when social media apps were becoming the big thing within younger people and I can’t imagine what the pressures are like almost a decade on from when I first started utilising it. Having to post the next best thing and always be upbeat and positive as this is all we are intaking from those we follow and look up to online.

No wonder there are links between the impact of social media and mental health.

It’s scary to think what we are taking in from who we’re following and how warped our perception of reality and everyday life is becoming. I know from experience that I would think I would be happier after getting the latest in thing from the celeb advertising it because she/he was smiling in the photograph, so it clearly was making them happy.

I often felt inadequate with the circumstances and the environment I was born into, even though I couldn’t help it. I would end up deleting pictures that did not get enough likes due to being embarrassed and feeling ugly, whilst I sat and compared myself to someone with over a thousand of these likes.

I’d constantly sit and say ‘I wish I could be them, I wish I had their body or belongings’ thinking it would lead to the be all and end all of happiness, when in reality it wouldn’t.

It has taken a few years and a lot of down days to realising that I am enough, that the life certain people are selling online is not real, that I should not compare myself to them as, day in day out their life online won’t be what it is like in real life. They are not above me or anyone else they are the same, I am already enough and do not need the latest gadget to be like them.

Here’s my top 3 tips for those on social media

  • Take everything with a pinch of salt – the pictures you see online are probably not reality and have taken a mini photoshoot to get ‘the perfect shot’. Do not feel belittled and unworthy – most of the photos and content will be edited.
  • Do not buy into the adds online –they are being paid to say good things about the product, you most likely do not need it and you’ll most likely never use the product once you have got it anyway, you’re just putting money into those with large followings pockets.
  • Unfollow those who make you feel bad about yourself – I wish I had done this sooner, I felt so free when I unfollowed those who pressurised me into thinking I wasn’t good enough, it isn’t their fault it’s my own perception of self-worth but not having images and content on my feed that made me feel bad has really helped with my thoughts

We hope you enjoyed this blog.  Read more about self image on MindMate.

Image refs: http://emilycoxhead.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-reality-of-social-media.html , http://www.vickiima.com/thought-post-my-views-on-social-media


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Comments

  1. I totally agree with this blog. I read something similar last year and had a break from social media for a while as it was knocking my self esteem and I wondered if I was affecting others by posting the best of myself /my life. There is an amazing new music track about social media and it not being reality. There is a video that accompanies it that makes you think about the affects on life. It’s worth checking out as it will appeal to young people. Sly Antics track is Reality.

  2. I’ve never been able to understand the attraction of social media. Why people feel a need to document their lives is beyond me.

    I can’t think of anything I’d rather do less than have to continuously share details of my everyday life with people.

  3. I completely agree with this post. I do not understand the obsession of a lot of people, mostly young, but also from different age groups with social media. A lot of times what you get to see in the name of “content” are paid promotions and un-real, dolled up, make-up plastered, botoxed, edited and photoshopped pictures/videos by celebrities, and “influencers”. It seems that nowadays anyone can get famous on social media, if by chance any of their photos or videos goes “viral”. It does not matter, if the quality of content is good or very poor, people are being gauged as famous and influential by their number of “followers”, whether those followers are organic, or not. Social media transports people into a false world, which is not the actual reality of life.

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