Social media was never really a big thing. Back in the day, people were on Xanga, then Myspace, and now Facebook. As a millennial, I’ve experienced all of the different evolutions of technology and social media. In the general scheme of things, social media allows you to connect with people from all over the world with the click of a single button. This concept sounds fantastic to brands, content creators, and marketing directors! However, for other kids/teenagers/young adults, it can be kind of scary.

It allows strangers to know everything about you- unless your profile is private. This is the reason why a lot of parents won’t allow their kids to even have a social media account. The concept of social media becomes even more complicated for young adults my age trying to figure out their place in this world. It makes it so EASY for us to compare our lives to other people- even if we don’t do it intentionally. We can look at a picture on Instagram and think:

“WOW, look at how cute her clothes are, I wish I had enough money to buy something like that.”
“Damn, that dude is hella ripped, I gotta get back to the gym more.”
“What the heck? This person is literally making money traveling all over the world. What am I doing with my life?”
“Oh… *name* looks like they’re having so much fun. I need to get out more.”

In reality, the girl probably owns cheaper clothes and a select few nice things. That guy probably only works out 2 times a week and just decided to post a progress picture. That person traveling the world or hanging out with their friends? Of course, these people are going to WANT to document their experiences and show off in a way. Why wouldn’t they? That’s the way social media works- you only see the good parts of people’s lives.

Because why would someone want to tweet about their breakup? Why would someone want to post a picture and #mentalhealthawareness? Why would anyone want to open up about anything negative in their lives on SOCIAL media? That’s the curse part. It leads people to think that everyone else but themselves have this picture perfect life and that’s not true. Everyone goes through their own struggles. Everyone has their down days.

I’ve come to write this post because early in July, when my cousin had been comatose, I debated on whether or not to post a picture by his bed side on my Instagram. I got so frustrated with myself. Why was I hesitating? Because of the idea that you can only post good things on social media? Because why would anyone want to see that? But it was my account and I wanted to post whatever I wanted to. I wanted to post about something or someone that I cared about. In the end, I never posted the picture- giving into the curse.

Social media is only a blessing because it helps you connect with other people and build your audience. For instance, I rely on social media to simply update people about my blog. I rely on social media as a platform to put out the content that I create and it’s amazing. So many people get to see what I create and what I’m proud of because of this crazy thing called the internet. It just sucks how much time social media can consume out of you. As a millennial, you kind of just have to live with it but don’t let it get to you because everyone has a good and bad side to their lives no matter what their profile shows. This is how we grew up- this is the age of social media.

End note:

I just realized that I received over 11,000 hits within the month of July alone. I just wanted to thank my worldwide peeps for keeping up with me! Let’s all be infatuated with life together.

So much love,

Jess xx