Striving for social media perfection

As social media has changed and developed over the years, it has become intertwined into almost every aspect of different cultures around the world. Social media has transformed from being a media platform for users to connect with each other to a platform to brag, compare and try to appear better than other users.

Social media users will post only good events or moments on their accounts, such as going to a concert or attending a great party. They will post good things consistently, providing an outward reality where their lives are wonderful and have no downfalls or negativity.

Social media allows for people to curate a life that they actually want: a perfect one with no lonely or boring nights. However, that is untrue. More often than not, people are cuddled in their beds watching Netflix or listening to music.

Social media also unintentionally puts pressure on people to constantly look put together and beautiful. If a user posts what is deemed an ugly picture, no one is going to “like” the photo. This, in turn, will cause the poster to think the picture is not good enough or that they are not attractive.

This mindset allows companies like Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook to create filters that will alter the way pictures and people look. These filters allow a person to cover what they do not like about themselves and will allow them to achieve perfection, a status that does not exist.

So, when a follower or friend is looking through another user’s posts, the follower or friend only sees the perfectly photoshopped or filtered image and then compare themselves to that instead of what the person actually looks like.

This is detrimental to a lot of people, especially teenagers, as they look to people to see what they should conform too. In turn, those comparing themselves to unrealistic pictures more often than not will actively try to change themselves to be as close as possible to that picture, which is often impossible to achieve. When it is possible, it is frequently not attainable by healthy means.

This thought process feeds into how the general public sees themselves and how the public shapes the societal views. One example of this is seeing how if a person is not going out and partying then they are missing out and therefore, again, not enough when it is normal and actual reality to be home most nights.