What a Mad World To Live In

The growth and popularity of social media has been exceptionally strong, and with the easy use of technology at our hands it is seemingly taking control over our lives. Being an "influencer" is also considered a job today, with individuals being flown out to exotic locations to take pictures and post on numerous platforms, all while promoting various products through endorsement and promotional deals. Social media thrives off of people interacting with each other, and while the goal of this interaction is to harbor positive relationships with followers and influencers, a cloud of negativity looms over every user on social media. 

The pressure to be "perfect' is immense, with the use of filters and editing photos as well as getting the most amount of likes on your post taking priority over having genuine interactions with people. Personally, I am rather neutral in the world of social media, since I don't think too much into what I post nor what others post. I also know that photo editing has been used for many years now, for the use of models and advertisements in older campaigns, and that most everything we see from the internet has been edited in some fashion. 

With the increasing need to fit into this mold social media is creating, many individuals edit their photos to make themselves look better, in order to feel better about themselves. This is how we achieve validation; from the approval of others only then can we approve ourselves, which is really quite sad. My hope is that more people will learn to love and accept themselves as well as accept others, so that this need to drastically change yourself and your opinions to be accepted can start to decrease. 

I don't think social media is a complete negative thing, however, since it can bring many people together and keep them connected for many years to come. It is also how we share our achievements and document our lives in this sort of digital scrapbook we have to look back on. Overall, social media is an integral part of society now, with everyone from preteens to parents using apps like Snapchat and Instagram, so we should learn how to engage with it in a healthy way before it takes it toll on our mentality. A link to the video used is provided here.