What Are The Ugly Truths About Social Media?

Social media constantly makes an impact on every individual. As Instagram continues to trial invisible LIKES across select countries such as Australia, Japan, Ireland, and Brazil, digital companies are scrutinising the negative effects of online behaviour on mental health and self-esteem more closely than ever. Since the LIKE button was first introduced by Vimeo in 2005, with Facebook propelling it into common usage in 2009, reports show that children are comparing and judging their life to the number of 'likes' a social-media post gets.

One thing is common in everyone when it comes to social media: they love it, hate it, and can't get off it.

Here are the five ways to break out of the digital bubble and rewire some helpful online habits, without turning your back on social media completely.

Judge, and being judged

When Instagram began in 2010, the platform was used to post still-life photographs of art, food and scenic holidays that followers would simply LIKE, or DISLIKE. Nine years on, it has evolved to become a personal branding platform. Now, it turned out that people's faces, bodies, political opinions and professional achievements are deemed likeable or not. Spending enough time on a certain platform not because of entertainment but because you are trying to establish something. How many times have we internally labelled someone as vain or privileged based on the online content they post?

Are we natural on social media what we are in the real world?

Be sure, you can't judge your life by seeing cheerful faces and glossy lives on social media. Everyone has a purpose to do so. Every time we feel either superior or inferior, it's our ego. So, take a moment to self-reflect and think about what's driving your reactions as you scroll down.

Do you actually look like that?

According to new research by plastic surgeons, a photograph taken at arm’s length can make your nose look up to 29 per cent bigger. Meanwhile, photo-editing tools such as Facetune, Apple’s most popular paid app in 2017, offer users the opportunity to narrow their noses. Your selfies—and others that you might be comparing yourself to—are about as representative as a distorted mirror. Consider how the act of taking a selfie, actually makes you feel. If it feels like a positive tool to document your experience and express yourself, then continue. If, however, selfies exacerbate your anxieties or incite new ones, remember: you don’t have to take them. Taking selfies has become almost instinctual for the digital generation—the average millennial will take 25,000 in their lifetime—but it’s not too late to rewire that instinct. You might find that your self-confidence improves when you stop scrutinising yourself on your phone.

Your fantasizing interests won't live up to their dating profiles, and neither will you.

The fad of using dating apps in the modern world has increased in new users since 2016, and Bumble surpassed 55 million registered users in 2019. If you are using a dating app, you have searched for your match time via social media either pre- or post-date. More often than not, it is easy to fall for the Instagram grid as reality, rather than the carefully curated world it is. When starting a relationship via digital communication.

Remember: what you see on their social media profiles is, at best, a half-truth. The other half is who you will be in a relationship via digital communication.

Concluded,

Distracted from distraction by distraction”

― T.S. Eliot