We live in a world consumed with technology. Will I say it has negatively impacted us?- absolutely not. However, teenagers and young adults these days have been brought up with the influence of social media in their developing adolescent years. Specifically, let's talk about Instagram.

Instagram started out as an online journal of photos with only a couple filters available at the time. (Everyone remembers using the Nashville filter amiright?) Since the launch of this app, it has obviously gained momentum in the recent 5 years. There's a new term us millennials use to describe someone well known on Instagram as an "Instagram Model", and I am sick and tired of having not only girls, but boys as well compare themselves to these artificial standards of social networking.

Along with body image, and/or how affluent you are, people my age literally will get emotionally hurt from not getting enough "likes" on their photos as they see these models get thousands of likes. I'm not going to be a hypocrite, it is a great feeling to get a new record of likes on your pictures, but it has come to the point where people will literally pay for likes through certain apps to enhance their page for people's attention and self validity.

I get it, people want to be noticed, appreciated and even be desired because of how they appear on social media; It has become our human nature of the 21st century. There are numerous accounts of "Instagram models" whose entire career focuses around self promotion on this app.

Sure, they have great bodies and probably are good people (we would never know for sure because we most likely won't meet them) however, its causing this inevitable new standard for people my age that honestly has set the bar low. Instead of being productive, people my age spend their time literally unfollowing one another on Instagram because they're paranoid about their "follower ratio" (Don't get me started on this one).

We do not know these people personally, and for people around me to constantly compare themselves to them because of their "beauty" or "social media influence" isn't productive. In my opinion, we should envy those who have become successful and work hard to make a change in the world, not someone who is getting paid to post about "hair growth candy..."

Social media is one of the most impactful inventions of the 21st century, and if we don't begin to use it wisely, we will let it consume us, and eventually destroy us. So for your own sake, stop comparing yourself to people you see on Instagram.