The Destruction Social Media Can Bring to Our Lives If Used Incorrectly

Our lives now are controlled by advancing technology and social media, instead of going to the bank we are using online banking, instead of sending birthday cards in the mail we are receiving text messages and Facebook comments. While I appreciate the advances in technologies in some aspects like immediate information about a topic while I am studying I can see the destructive side of social media as well.

In our society today people often define themselves and their worth based upon how many “friends”, “followers” or “likes” they have. Even worse the internet has become a place of bullying in addition to schools so the person who is being bullied has no escape and often performs extreme measures to stop the bullying hurting either themselves or others. This is extremely sad and I while I was growing up with the internet relativity new I even saw bullying occurring in passive aggressive manners on things such as AIM.

Our society now based a person’s worth based upon their popularity online and for those who do not have the popularity this lack of being “popular” can cause them to feel worthless and strive to have the lives that others have. This can cause individuals to become someone they are not and live a life that is not really theirs because they are trying to achieve perfection that is not really attainable. We now have extravagant marriage proposals on the internet, pregnancy announcements and posting about accomplishments which make others feel like they are not achieving anything in their lives. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying these things should not be posted if the person is generally wants to share them, however the problem is they are often posted ONLY to brag to others.

These levels of extravagance cause simple things to seem dull, for example with my parents their engagement story may seem dull in today’s standards although it is wonderful for them. They were looking at houses together and my dad asked my mom what she thought of the house they were looking at, she mentioned it was nice but she could not live there unless they were married and my dad said of course so do you want to get married and they were engaged and they went out to celebrate. There was no engagement ring and instead my mom got a house and then a very nice wedding band. Looking at this story it is wonderful however with comparisons to today’s standard people might roll their eyes at this because in the world of social media now it is all about how he asked and how big the ring is.      

I want to stress that social media can be what you make it so PLEASE try not to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others based upon what you see on their online profiles. Although something may seem perfect online it really is not. Also think about this if you have 1000 plus people that you are friends with online who can you really trust in an emergency? Who will come help you on the freeway with flat tire? (besides triple AAA ;) ) True friends really are a blessing so try not to let the perfection of the internet and other individuals successes get to you. Please don’t compare yourself to others on the internet because it will only bring you down. Each and every one of us is special in our own way and we each have our own path in life, don’t let other individual’s lives define how we should live our own.