Social media is a place where many people share different aspects of their life. It’s a way to connect with many different people no matter the location. It started off as a way to be able to post about a part of your life while still being able to hold some privacy. However, many believe that social media has become too personal and people post too much of their lives to be judged by others.
The TikTok trend “social media isn’t real” has been going around on the platform and many people have posted things from trauma, mental health and struggles to jokes or issues they may have that aren’t as serious as others. On the more serious and darker side of this trend, people speak on issues that have been bothering them and that they can’t seem to get over. For example, it could be about insecurities they have like their body shape or their facial features. It may be about failed attempts of getting into relationships or even heartbreaks that cause them to have a negative outlook on relationships. Some have even been about depression and anxiety they may face in their day-to-day life. Social media is now such a big part of people’s lives that it may be the cause of a lot of issues that we face today.
As more and more people speak out about their insecurities, mental health and trauma on social media, some are also starting to talk about how social media is becoming too personal. They are saying that the amount of time others spend on social media is doing a lot more harm than we think. It’s to a point where many individuals are starting to take social media too seriously and forgetting that it isn’t a real place. It is causing a toxic environment since it leads to insecurities from posts online. People start to compare themselves to others making them feel like they are not good enough or they are not where they need to be in life. Social media is also causing gender wars between women and men about dating and how they perceive each other. It’s making us more divided, and not just for genders, but also race or even political standpoints.
Furthermore, social media is giving people unrealistic expectations of how people should live their lives. It’s causing people to normalize everything and making it hard to formulate your own opinion. When something becomes trendy, people take it and try to normalize it. For example, the word “toxic” has become normalized as something that is good and funny. While in reality, it’s not good to be a toxic person, but because of social media it is now taken more lightly than it should be. This is how it starts to alter the way many think and makes people think it is okay to be a toxic person in real life just because it is trending. Social media is so huge now that the line between real life and social media is starting to blur.
Since social media is so accessible, it’s causing people to consume so much of it that it is creating a lot of issues. People are spending so much time on social media instead of living their lives in the real world. They are so invested in what is happening with others that they are forgetting to live their own life. Social media may have started off as purely positive, but because of the amount of consumption, it causes people to rely on it too much for their daily lives. However, social media doesn’t have to be a negative place; it can still be positive if people use it wisely. There should be a limit to how much time is spent on there, and people should avoid posting too much of their personal life. It is best to remember that social media isn’t real and you shouldn’t revolve your life around it. Create boundaries to make sure you can separate your life from social media and reality.
Cited Sources
University, C. (2023, March 14). Just how harmful is social media? our experts weigh-in. Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/just-how-harmful-social-media-our-experts-weigh
Links to the TikTok videos
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRwBvE3m/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRwBbtLJ/