The internet has recently blown up with the choices of Essena O'Neill, an "Instagram star" who wiped out all of her social media sites. Her reasoning was she felt like social media had caused her to portray the “perfect life” through her photos and posts while in reality, it wasn’t quite paradise.

O’Neill opens up about the way she really felt ever since her stardom began. This lifestyle began when she was 15. At first, she loved it and thought that the things she was doing, such as working out for extensive hour or even indulging in unhealthy eating habits were okay, because she was told that she was “perfect”, had “body goals” and got thousands or likes and followers on all of her social media platforms. However, little did these people know that she had to pose to extensive hours, take hundreds of pictures for a single shot, and use editing apps to make her photos look “flawless” for one picture. Now, at age 19, she's realizing that she wasn’t happy and she wasn’t the best she that she could be. Now O’Neill has her own website, where she only posts on certain days of the week to share how she is progressing with her life. This is also a website where people can share their unique talents that make them special.

So, I decided to do a little research to test Essena's theory and see if and why social media is the "new mean girl", the one that we want to please so that we can fit in and the one that bullies us to the point of self-hate and depression.

While scrolling through various health websites, I noticed how all of them agreed that social media can be harming to a person’s mental stability. Nowadays, teens are spending more and more time focused on how many likes, shares, and retweets they get because it makes them feel accepted. Quality Health states that, “Online social media is associated with higher rates of depression in teens because it replaces time spent on real-life socializing or other activities--such as sports, school, and hobbies--that may actually prevent depression.”

Now let me ask you, how late do you stay up scrolling through you electronic device? Let me guess, very late even after you’ve done all of the work that you needed to do. Where do you put your phone when you go to sleep? Right next to your bed right? Well Quality Health also explains how “Engaging in social media at night can also disrupt a teen's sleep, and experts are concerned that some online messages reinforce aggression and risky behavior.”

Another interesting fact is that social media can also fuel eating disorders. Marcela Rojas writes in USA today, “Images of spindly legs, concave stomachs and jutting ribs emerge on various sites by searching hashtags like #thinspogram #thighgap or #bonespo. The disturbing photos are often accompanied by even more shocking "thinspirational" messages — ‘Pretty girls don't eat,’ ‘Skip dinner, be thinner’ and ‘You have to exercise for a week to work off the thigh fat from a single Snickers.’” Please, please, please, do not listen to these kinds of things. You are better than this and you are beautiful. You do not need to starve yourself or skin meals to have the “perfect” body. When I read this it frightened me, “Anorexia, in particular, has a mortality rate 12 times higher than any other cause of death in women ages 15 to 24, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.” Lots of people post things about not eating on social media and this makes other think that doing this is okay. For both parties, this is damaging because on one hand the person posting that feels like it really is okay to do it because so many people have liked or shared the post and or picture, while, the people seeing that post think that that’s what they’re supposed to be doing because this person is getting a lot of “positive” feedback.

And then I came across a site about signs of depression caused by social media and they listed the following:

• Using social media stirs up many emotions in us
• Social media depression arises because we subconsciously compare our lives with those whose snippets we see online
• Social media has not yet been professionally accepted as a term for a mental disorder.
• It has been found that social media websites can adversely affect the mental health of some people
• Depression caused by the use of social media largely depends upon the way it is being used.
• When we pretend to be happy just to showcase ourselves to the world
• In order to avoid depression caused by social media, experts advise to stop comparing your life to that of others

Looking at these and reflecting on the things I do in my life, I can admit that I am guilty of most of these. Like O’Neill, I take thousands of photos to choose one and edit it to please the people around me. Yes it feels good to be told that your pictures are “perfect” but is this really what we should be feeling good about? Maybe we need to reflect and see what we can fix like O’Neill has done. If you want to join her movement you can check her website and see what the world has in store for you and what you can do for yourself.