The Truth About Social Media

Growing up in the 21st century is... different. It is so much harder to be a part of, yet so much easier in so many backward ways.

While I understand that was a controversial statement, it is also very true—let me explain. It is easier because we don't have to throw a bottle across an ocean to send a message, we don't have to boycott buses to prove segregation is still in the now, more importantly, to stay connected we only need to send so much as a friend request.

However on the flip side of things, that is the problem. When trying to get a message out to loved ones, rather than making a grand meaningful gesture like writing them a letter, we just send them a simple message on social media. Boycotts don't happen anymore because what is the point in leaving your house to start a fire-y protest, when you can build a social movement for change from your bedroom. And staying connected? All of these hundred of thousands of people we have on social media, aren't connected to us at all. If you don't believe me, suspend your account for a few weeks and see who really makes a conscious effort to contact you.

We are so blind sighted into believing that this virtual reality that we create for ourselves, is our reality. We tend to block out the true gravity of our problems by portraying them how we want to on social media, to the point where we are not only trying to convince them but ourselves too. We confide so much in the profile we have built for ourselves, that it is easier to better and perfect ourselves that way—rather than dealing the reality of what our life is when we put down that mobile phone. We get to a point where we forget how to just be, how to just take a deep breath and enjoy doing nothing, how to enjoy our own company and how to feel like we are using our time wisely when reading a paperback book rather than some propaganda about Theresa May on social media to help us feel woke and aware.

There is honestly nothing more pitiful than being in a room full of people and looking around to find everyone with a mobile phone chained to their right hand. It is genuinely and intensely overwhelming to see how people want to use their time in the company of the ones they love.

We all seem to tactically take a step back from the truth of mobile phones and in doing that, we tell ourselves that they keep us safe. When roaming the streets late at night with your friends, you can easily contact emergency services should there be a time of need. Dare I ask, but how is it that we have rewritten the truth of the fact that the thing that makes us feel safest could actually be what makes us most vulnerable? There was a time when children who are victims of bullying would receive abuse at school and when they left to be in the comfort of their own home, it was like they were at peace with the world. Now, children don't have that liberty. You can't just walk out of the school gates and be free from the abuse that you have had thrown at you for six hours straight. You now literally take it home in your pocket and welcome it in. The bullies climb into the comfort of your own home through your social media accounts, making it so that you don't only feel self-conscious about what you're wearing when leaving the house, but also when Snap-chatting your friends.

Social media is supposed to connect the entire world from your home and from a click of a button, which I think we can agree to a certain extent it achieves that goal. However, these networking sites have literally shrunk the planet. Rather than traveling to America for your long distant cousins birthday, the whole family will just sit in the front room and Skype call them. The excuse is, "well it just makes more sense, is more convenient and money saving." Since when were birthdays supposed to be convenient and money saving? Just because social media makes all of these things possible, doesn't mean we have to go forth and decide of our own back that we have to do them. It makes everything so much less sentimental when done through social media, because anyone can do it, and everyone has done it.

Social media is "A" world but it is not "THE" world. When looked at in context, social media can do massive amounts of good for the world. It is a platform that many people use constructively, but like presidency, when taken into the wrong hands it can change the way we look at the world and the way that the world looks at us. The average person will spend years of their life looking down at their lap into their phone screen, they will try to be constructive with it and try to build movements that will make them feel productive. Why is it so scary to just stand up and leave the house without your phone? To do something as simple as walk to the local green to read a book in your own company where the only things that can touch you is the breeze and the poetically peaceful sound of the birds tweeting in harmony. On the flip side, most of this generation would rather sit at home and channel their passion in to hatred and envy of people who are "famous on social media." Beating themselves up because they don't have a Range Rover bought with commission from selling detox products, convincing themselves that the reason they don't have that contract is because their body isn't nice enough to sell the product. This is the world of social media. This backwards enterprise that places you into a mindset so volatile and hateful, you actually think that anger that stems from the horrible shit that you see is changing the world. Because you saw it on Facebook first, you criticised it on Facebook first. Now you await the reactions, to have an argument with some narrow-minded Cathy that you haven't spoken to since you were 10, but her opinion will get you fired up anyway because when you look at your Facebook page you forget how irrelevant she really is to your life, due to the fact you know everything about hers from what she posted yesterday. It is so important to establish in your mind that you only know what they want you to know.

It really is, anti-social networking. This overstimulated idea of a false pretentious reality is what is sucking the life from within us. Because it is false and it is so over exaggerated. You cannot sign in to any social media page and see the contrasting black and white that is perfect life and miserable life—neither of which are honest. On the internet, we chose which side of life we want to be on— are we on the miserable or happy side? Neither matters, because neither are true. No one is as unhappy as they make out on social media because if they were they wouldn't be posting about it all the time like it is something to be proud of, they are simply stimulating a response that will cloud their loneliness. Just the same as no one is as happy as they make out on their social media because again, if they were they wouldn't be shoving it in everyone's face. Do you really need to prove you're enjoying something to enjoy it? If you do, you're not enjoying it at all, you enjoy the reaction it stimulates on social media.

The modern world that is social media is not honest. You only realise how deceiving and addictive it is when you're out of it. Your eyes truly open to the world when you disconnect. When you wake up in the morning and check the news before the notifications on your phone screen. The way you will talk to strangers on the bus because you don't have your mind in your hand in the form of a phone you begin to seem approachable. When you learn to walk down the street and appreciate the birds tweeting instead of the music in your ears, you learn about yourself.

Social media is the leading cause of the stigma around teenage mental health. It causes so many problems when not used appropriately and there isn't enough education around this virtual reality. We are taught to protect ourselves from the 40-year-old men who can pretend to be 13 through social media. We are taught not to post anything that we wouldn't want our future employers to see and we are taught to block bullies. Never are we taught that it is addictive, more addictive than any drug or any teenage boy's love. The most addictive thing I have ever come into contact with. The sense of approval that you get from 100 likes on a selfie, is so appealing.