Raise your hand if you use social media every day. Now, keep your hands up if you’ve ever tweaked what you’ve put out on social media to fit in, or took more than ten minutes deciding what picture to post. Even used a profile picture or header you normally wouldn’t.
Media is supposed to be about connecting others together, but it’s sort of become a game of ‘how many people I can I get to like me, even if that means I have to lose my trueself’. Especially on Twitter and Instagram. It’s about follows, follows, follows.
“F4f?”
“This account gave you a free follow. Follow account in bio.”
“Follow account or you’ll be unfollowed.”
“Follow me pls?”
“RT for a follow”
“Like for 100 free follows”
Saying the word follow seems to be weird now. What is the hype about having so many follows? Follows mean power? Influential capabilities? You’re better than everyone? If you have to change your appearance in order to get those hundreds or thousands of follows, is it really worth it?
Nowadays, it seems, finding someone being their true self on social medias is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It’s seemingly impossible. It’s understandable that people would like the attention, and getting follows, rts, likes, faves, etc is like feeling special. I’ll admit, I’ve caught myself changing the wording of a tweet just to get a few likes out of it, and I’ve fretted over what next Twitter layout I should have. But those days are over. I’m at the point that it doesn’t matter and if someone doesn’t like me then they can build a bridge and get over it.
A couple friends of mine have huge follow counts on their Twitters, but for different reasons. Both have to do with One Direction fan accounts, but one is for larries and the other is for the boys. They’ve collected those follows because people genuinely like the content they were sharing. I’m positive they’re still racking up more every day.
Fan accounts fall harshly into the pool of social media. They’re trickier too. Some people say since it’s a fan account then the person doesn’t have to be honest about themselves. But, it’s still their account. If I’m following a fan account, I want it to be the real person behind it and their true feelings; not feelings they know are going to get the attention they want.
Ignorance is bliss in this case scenario. For some, it’s follows over friends. For others, friends over follows. And some who are losing themselves for everything of the social media fame don’t realize they are. It’s a terrifying reality.
Social media gives this perception of someone being perfect. No can be absolutely perfect. They’re only perfect because they’re not. Everyone is different and we should all be able to accept that and move on if our trueself doesn’t get as many follows, rts, likes, faves, etc.
