I won’t lie and say that I am not one of them, but our generation, the generation of technology and social media, is slowly but surely diminishing our face to face social skills. Today we care more about likes and followers than real conversations, feelings, and emotions.

Have you ever deleted an Instagram picture because it didn’t get enough likes? Have you ever posted a picture solely for the purpose of getting the attention of ONE specific person? Do you constantly check your followers and your news feed?

If you replied no to any of these questions, then you are lying not only to yourself but to all of us. We hide behind bogus pictures and statuses, in the hopes of impressing our peers. But do we really care? I for one will admit that most of the time I scroll so fast through my news feed I don’t even have enough time to see who posted, yet I anxiously wait for likers and commenters on the things I post, thinking that what I posted actually matters.

In my opinion what is posted online isn’t always real, it is more of a portrait of how you want people to perceive you. I would never want people to know that I am less confident than I appear, or that many times I’m afraid to speak to people I’m not close-friends with. In the real world I strut the halls with a sense of fake confidence, something I’ve mastered with years of practice. I try to make my social media accounts fun, and positive, and confident, but thinking back to it now, they seem to be one big lie.

I think the downfall of social media is that you can portray yourself in any light, be it positive or negative. Taking that into consideration, I think that social media is a little bit shallow. It’s hard to explain, but social media is an outlet to impress, not exactly a channel into your inner self. Honestly thinking about it as a teenager, it disgusts me that someone can feel so low about themselves over something as simple as a Facebook post or a Tweet.

Social media can both make or break you. One bad image posted and your social life is destroyed, but why? Because people think I’m not as beautiful? Because I look fat? Was it because I did something embarrassing? It isn’t others that destroy your reputation, but it is yourself that does. To me, social media feels like an outlet of judgment. I feel as if I am setting myself up to get examined like a frog being dissected. But at the end of the day, the real world is what matters, not some silly online profile.