According to data collected by Business Insider, Instagram is viewed as the "most important" social media network by the teenage demographic. In the spring of 2015, 32 percent of teenagers held this perspective, compared to Twitter's 24 percent and Facebook's 14 percent. As an American generation whose critical mental development occurs with the presence of smart phones, we are provided these outlets in popular society to express any interpretation of ourselves to others that we'd like, and therefore these outlets are commonly used.

Being guilty of birth within Generation Z, I have used social networks for the duration of my conscious life, yet they have always inclined me to analyze the actuality of modern social media. I've got it all: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify, SoundCloud and even Cymbal. For this particular example, I will try to portray my own evaluation of Instagram, which can be observed parallel to other social networks, from the 2 differing perspectives that leave me overly analytical when I open up my Android. The tone of writing I use will not essentially interpret my own thoughts, but rather exemplify the bipolarity of the 2.

One Side: Instagram is dope. It's replaced the outdated social of smoking in the boys' room. It allows people to share enhanced images of themselves, their activities, their photography and their lifestyle to a social network of their own determined size. They can express the excitement, happiness and beauty of going to the lake on Saturday to a wide majority of their community for their subtle social recognition, while providing a topic of discussion when they see their friend who follows them in class on Monday. For a young adult attending college, what they choose to post on Instagram will be seen by a much larger group of people than their immediate friend group. If they post pictures of themselves doing interesting or popular things, then the entirety of their followers, who may not know them on a personal level, can recognize the person that they "are" through the images they post under their username. Instagram, and social media in general, is a further act of networking, on a newly interpersonal level through the accounts we use. We are able to fabricate a brand for ourselves to a larger group of people than we necessarily relate with. Rather than networking professionally and sending our resume to a growing address book, we are now able to imprint our desired social image to the community we choose. We are able to represent ourselves in a completely redefined way. Instagram comprises a section of our social resume, while the entirety of social media completes it.

The Latter Side: Why do we as humans, in presence of this new technology, feel that we must construe a social resume? Is it simply due to newfound availability? Before social networks, the most common form of social influence occurred in true interpersonal relationships, between one physical being vibrating their vocal chords with another. For this particular article, why do we feel inclined to post images of our lives to Instagram? Imagine this. A human being is enjoying a social setting. The social setting is producing dopamine in the human being's brain. Everything seems right. The human being ejects themselves from the natural state of this interpersonal setting, reaches into their manufactured denim pocket and emerges their hand holding a black rectangle. The human being "captures the moment," but not for their own hippocampus to recall in the future. They tap on this black rectangle with their fingers only with the intent to post it to a social media application called Instagram for other human beings, who are likely not participating in the social setting they were enjoying, to see and acknowledge. Why did the human being stop enjoying something between its own kind? The simplicity of a harmonious social setting is an overseen masterpiece of modern human interaction. Why is it that we must withdraw ourselves from the moment itself, potentially inhibiting the amount of dopamine in our bloodstream from the moment, in order to share it widespread through a much less personable, restricted medium?

From my own accumulated thoughts, I believe that every human stems socially from the "idea of others." This idea holds its foundation with the simple fact that human minds are capable of grasping the idea of other human minds around them. From this, the idea can direct itself many different ways through each human mind's reality. These include: acknowledgement, empathy, narcissism, envy, jealousy, hate and compassion. Is it possible that we, as the aforementioned humans, are only extending this seemingly perpetual human condition? Due to having smart phones so readily available, the writing of our social resume is undoubtedly a modern adaption to the "idea of others."

Now, these "others" are able know what we want them to know about us through this common medium, and we are able to increase the amount of "others" that know what we want them to know about us. Perhaps we just want to be known, or recognized in the minds of "others." To be known simply means to be aware of, or to be able to distinguish one from another. I think we can agree that a large amount of us, if not all, use social media and our social resume to represent ourselves as individuals. Doing this, we hope to distinguish our face from the crowd and it seems that we want our social network to be aware of us.

What kind of socialite are you on the Internet? Why is that? College is the time to become the best version of ourselves. It is not our peak, and I ensure that with further improvement there will be more great versions of us afterward. However, I believe that it is important for all of us to stop and think. Why do we do it? Is who we present ourselves as on social media an accurate representation of the mirror before us? Does this matter? I believe that analyzing the factor of why, especially in the context of our social resume, is a very important self-process to have.