I Hate Social Media

Social Media has always been an important aspect of my life and it would not be shocking if it remains equally significant throughout my entire life. It is a way for me to connect with my friends, family whilst also acting as an important indicator of the most ‘fashionable’ trends. The honest truth is that I don’t hate social media, I can never hate social media and that is why I hate social media. As you can see my relationship with social media is best described as toxic and confusing.

Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp have always allowed me instant contact with both close and new friends. With every like, comment and message friendships can be saved. I have friends that I haven’t spoken to in years on my social media, however by being able to see each other’s pictures and continue to be updated on their lives, allows some kind of communication, albeit small and maybe meaningless.

I wasn’t introduced to social media for a very long time, according to today’s ‘youth,’ who seem to be on Instagram and Snapchat at the mere age of ten. I actually remember creating my login for Facebook; I had been begging and pleading my parents to allow me to join Facebook like the rest of my class. It seems that one day my dad became sick of my constant nagging that he finally decided to allow me to join Facebook. Slowly, without even knowing, I became addicted. As the world of social media continued to introduce new and innovative methods of communication, I was sucked in. Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat… The list is never ending.

The worst part of this and what makes me hate social media the most, is that I know that I don’t have the willpower or motivation, to step away and breathe. I need to know what my friends are up to, what the latest celebrity gossip is, what my favourite make up artists are posting. I need to stop.

My love hate relationship with social media only became clear to me quite recently, I realised that from my followers on Instagram and my friends on Facebook and Snapchat account to practically nothing. This is where my problem with social media arises; is it worth keeping up with all these people if they don’t really know you and you don’t really know them anymore. Does that make me a fake friend? Can I pick up the phone and just call? No. The answer is no, I can’t just pick up the phone and call a friend or go to their house. The reason why social media deprives me of this is because I feel as though having and relying on social media, makes it weird or awkward to just contact and old friend. Are we close if I comment on your pictures or are we just mere acquaintances now. Honestly, I haven’t had a single conversation with half of them and the other half equals to people I am no longer in contact with. I could easily say that only a very small amount of my ‘friends’ on social media are the ones I would call to share my life with, to meet up, people I can call my real friends. I could probably count them on my fingers which suggests that all these accounts just create a fake representation of me

Speaking of fake representations, social media has had a largely negative influence on me. It is not just a means of contacting people, it also shows you how you should look, what you should wear and how to behave. I spend hours flicking through various posts which only make me hate myself more. It has been so easy to look at models and many influencers and wish to be like them. This has made it very difficult for many people to differentiate between the media and reality.

Having said this, in the last couple of years I have seen progress in the world of social media, people from many different backgrounds and of many different shapes and sizes have started to increase their followers and have shown me that you don’t have to look a certain way to be successful. Like I mentioned before, many children are now introduced to social media at a very young age and the fact that more people are speaking up about the boundaries within social media, has definitely had a positive impact on younger audiences and their view of themselves. This aspect of social media slowly growing has definitely allowed me to hate it a little less.

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