Two words regarding last week’s news: Essena O’Neill.
In case you missed it, O'Neill is a social network queen who decided to delete her posts and accounts in order to bring awareness to the deceptiveness of social media. While there has been speculation about whether her intentions were pure, the message itself still stands.
Social media is a disease that infests our brains and makes us compare ourselves to others through false pretenses. Of course, this is an age old trick. Media of all kinds has been doing this since the beginning of time through fashion ads, movies, and celebrity publicity. However, there is something different, more personal, when the image-altering is expanded among yourself and your peers.
The media keeps digging the hole deeper and deeper, so we feel isolated and flawed in pursuit of determining our self-identity. Still worse -- it’s not only at our fingertips, but it has become our whole world. The time spent going from class to class, waiting for an appointment, avoiding an awkward encounter -- that’s all spent scrolling through our feeds in a game of likes and dislikes.
O'Neill stated that social media is an illusion. And deep down, we all know this. We know that the pictures are small, edited snapshots of moments that act to boost someone’s social status. They act to show off the cool places that person got to go to, the relationship they just got in, or how happy they are in this particular point in their lives. We know this because we do it too. Everyone participating in social media does.
We may dispute this statement, claiming that we post solely for the reason of sharing our experiences. Not to brag, not for validation, but because we are excited about something in our lives and want to tell others. This is totally valid. But if you want to share your experiences with friends, then freaking share them. Share a moment describing how happy you are to have rekindled that flame with your ex-boyfriend. Sit down and share the photos from your Euro trip, describing the funny story that happened at that particular bar, or the person you met while jumping into the Mediterranean. Share these moments with your friends, by all means, but allow yourself the opportunity to share them with the passion, the emotion, and the life in which you experienced them.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a conversation is worth so much more.
If only I could measure the emotional damage I’ve subjected myself to through social media. The thousands of pictures of beautiful girls reinforcing the idea that my image is merely, painfully, average. All the times that sinking feeling has settled in my stomach when I saw that I missed out or wasn’t invited to a social event or hang out. The number of times I have trolled through my ex’s new love interest’s Instagram, thinking that she is way prettier and probably way cooler than I will ever be.
When it comes to social media, the damage never stops. And for what reason? What good does it do me? So I can feed into this corrupt scale of judgment and win a few more points from those who follow me? I’m beginning to see it for what it really is: a scam. A scam that I am no longer willing to subject myself to.
Because by being away from the constant comparison, I am able to see myself with #nofilter. I am so beautiful. Not because I have straight teeth and a rockin’ bikini body, but because I have only one dimple when I smile, noticeable indents on my nose, and measure to exactly 5 feet 2 ¾ inches tall. I’m beautiful because I am real, goddammit. I am quirky and hyper and scattered brained, and would much rather curl up with a book than go surfing or do extreme sports. The hell with social media for telling me that’s not beautiful, because the essence of who you really are -- well, that’s one of the only truly beautiful things I know in this life. It’s time we embrace it.
