While putting off studying for my Journalism final (story of my life), I came across a short segment of Lady Gaga speaking at Yale, addressing why she was contemplating quitting the music industry a couple years back. Intrigued, I found the original video, a 60 minute, extremely educational, inspiring, and enlightening video from an extremely well spoken, educated Lady Gaga.
I won’t bore you by summing up the entire video, although I do recommend checking it out, but she spent the majority of the time addressing the issues with shaping our identity as individuals when social media is engulfing our being. We are “unconsciously creating lies” through manufactured texts, edited pictures (I admit, those filters save my life), and only posting our most proud moments. I’ll admit, my Instagram profile makes me seem a lot cooler than I actually am. Posting pictures from formals, game days, or just days where I’m really feeling myself… that’s not what I look like all the time. People get so insecure looking at profiles of models, or even their peers, looking at these selected pictures and thinking, Wow, I wish I could look like that, or They look like they have such a fun life. It’s not an accurate representation of their actual life.
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I also take incredibly long to respond perfectly to people. I’m like the perfect text manufacturer. I know exactly what to say, how to express my feelings in a way that sounds adequate, and how to come across in a positive manner all at the same time. However, when I’m caught off guard in person during nerve wrecking situations, I can easily freeze, start crying, or completely say the wrong thing.
We’ve become so good at manufacturing our social media to the lives that we want others to think we have, that we get lost finding the life that we want to actually have. I don’t want people thinking I’m some superficial sorority girl who only cares about formals and getting as many tailgate pictures as possible. In reality, I’m an anxious mess who spends a huge portion of her time re-watching The Officeon Netflix, but who would post that on social media? It’s not noteworthy. Or I guess I mean “insta-worthy.”
That’s how things are these days. It’s fun- I think we all know there’s a certain rush from Instagramming or getting a new “like” record. But don’t forget your true self- the self with all the layers, the emotions, and the imperfections that are there. Try to spend more time talking in person versus manufacturing the perfect response over text. Yes, that can save you nerves, but it’s not 100 percent real. Don’t get insecure over seeing pictures of your peers going out a night you’re not, or stalking a Victoria’s secret model’s Instagram and comparing yourself. You may not realize this, but she has bad days, too.
It’s clear that social media is here to stay. I would be a hypocrite if I were to say that I’m not totally obsessing over it, either (just ask my older brother who I text every now and then asking him to be my 300th like on my Instagram). But within this social media monster, don’t lose who you are outside of your online profile. Your weird quirks that you don’t let those online see. The nights you look like crap in pajamas with your retainer in- send a snap chat. Someone’s going to see it eventually- it’s more real than what you portray online, anyways.
Don’t lose your real substance trying to create an online hybrid of yourself.
