Everyone makes a big deal about how many followers or friends they have on social media. People post things for likes and attention. I have never gotten 100 likes on a photo but I still love social media. I don't do it for like likes. I do it for myself.

I know who is important in my life. The number of followers I have or likes I get will never validate who I am as a person. In high school I used to get upset when my friends would get more likes than me. I would often wonder why my photos weren't good enough. The girls who practically posted nude photos would get 300 plus likes on all their pictures. I actually felt ashamed because I pride myself more than that and yet why didn't people wanna like my photos? One day I realized that those likes didn't determine anything about me. Plus out of all the likes I do get, how many of those people can I actually say are truly my friends? I know who my friends are without who sees my post and who does not.

I see girls and everything they post makes their life look glamorous and perfect. They always look flawless, they always are smiling and they always look posed. They make being Insta famous look easy. Ya I'm sure a few people just popped in your mind just now. We all know those people. But are their lives really that perfect? Notice how they never post about how they had to stay up all night studying for a test they almost failed? Notice how they never showed them feeling confused about what the next step is? What about those times her and her boyfriend did have a fight and she didn't know what to do? We think their lives are perfect and something out of a movie but remember it's probably not.

We have to remember that social media is a perception. People only show what they choose to show. It probably took 60 tires to get that perfect picture with the right lighting and the cute caption. But how are we to know? We use social media as a platform to show people a glimpse of our lives. But does anyone ever stop to realize that that is just a glimpse and there is so much more to a person than their profiles? I will admit I am guilty of posting only the good sometimes. But I will be honest and let everyone know that not everything is always good.

The other day I met this girl who has a lot of followers on social media. The way her pictures were led me to believe that she would be judgmental. She was actually so down to earth. I didn't feel like she even looked a lot like her pictures. I thought about all the other people that never had a chance to meet her. Do they have this false perception of her too? Or did I just personally perceived she would be that way because of how her profile was set up and her amount of followers?

The next time you are looking at that same girl on social media with the perfect life. While you are wishing you were her, remember theres so much more that she isn't showing. I think social media needs to be taken more lightly. It is really cool to be able to see what our old friends are up to. Or look at the profiles of people we wish we could be. Remember that social media isn't everything. If you have a chance to actually get to know a person in real life you are lucky.

What image are you portraying to the world? Is it really you?