Social Media: The Voice of a Minority

I deleted social media back in October for around 5 months, got it back, and now after 2(ish) months I'm just over it. I don't need to see what everyone is doing. Even when I got social media back I didn't really use it again fully. I think our society, our generation, is too attached to instant information and documenting. We just sit behind our computer and phone screens and document our lives, and in the process compare it to everyone else. It keeps us from being happy, truly happy. The happiness you can only experience in the moment, that touches your core and you can’t truly document because as suddenly as it comes, it leaves. And no 140 character tweet and perfectly filtered picture can embody true happiness.

When all we perpetually see on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are happy smiling faces, people seemingly having an insane amount of fun, we are left feeling mediocre. None of what I am saying is new knowledge, people have been saying these things and doing studies on them for years. It just fully resonated with me today. I'm 18 years old finishing up my freshman year at college and I can't say I am anymore happy after this school year than I was in high school. I would actually say I’m just more lost. Yet while I battle with all my existential angst, I am showing a different side on the internet.

In high school everyone is in the same building and taking about the same classes. We may participate in different sports and activities and get different grades that change the experience, and opportunities we have, but we are more or less on the same level. Now enters college. We aren't forced to walk the same crammed halls, following the same path. We are separated. And the world really does become our oasis. When watching your peers delve into different arenas and have seemingly more varied, and just simply fun experiences, all you can do is compare. Left with a feeling that you aren’t doing enough, that your life and experience post high school education just doesn’t stack up.

When you are so hung up on social media all you are doing is comparing your collegiate experience (hell your life in general) the so called "best years of your life" to others and seeing if it stacks up. People might not say it and consciously see it, but it all becomes a contest. Beyond just sharing your life and letting people know what going on, you’re trying to prove how fun, interesting, and cool your life is. Once you’ve really clued in to viewing social media in this way it just isn't all that fun or important. It’s supposed to be fun, but for me it ends up just feeling like work.

Twitter, and Instagram (more so than Facebook) have just become branding tools. While celebrity or not everyone's personal brand is important, it really isn’t all that vexing for us common folk. The amount of internet fame you have through likes, followers, and friends doesn’t really alter the real world in any way. I understand “it's just fun”, and I’ve probably thought about this more than the average person posting their daily selfie onto “Insta” does, but it doesn’t change the truth of the matter. 

It may be fun, but it all just feels a bit shallow, and fake. And if you truly cared about what outfit I wore Friday night, or the restaurant and club I was visiting Saturday night, you’d ask. My phone would vibrate, and I would respond.  

So I’m done. Goodbye Twitter, Goodbye Instagram. Facebook, you’re deactivated but might pop back up. I don’t hate social media, I’m just done with playing into the toxic environment it can bred.