Social Media Mania

 Social media was intended as a means to share information. It has evolved into a means of portraying oneself exactly as they want others to see them. The reality does not necessarily match the portrayal. Postings on social media often include only the favorable parts of people’s lives. I believe it is human nature to compare yourself to others. Social media allows people to offer up their best self, or even their best idea of themselves and share it with whoever will listen or watch. 


I have some close friends who struggle in their relationships. They often come to me for consolation or for advice. The oddity is that they are often coming to me in pain or conflicted about how to handle situations while these same situations are portrayed much differently in a social media post. For example, my friend comes to me upset about his girlfriend. He is frustrated with her and wants to break up with her. I later view a post on his social media platform regarding the very same person that he was aggravated about. His post is professing his undying love and admiration of his girlfriend. It leaves me wondering what the truth is.


An additional example would include my aunt. She rarely does crafts or projects with my young cousins. Their grandparents are always coming up with fun craft ideas for them. My aunt will step in and take a photo of herself near my cousins ‘doing’ a craft and post it. Her social media posts consist of numerous photos of her appearing to do crafts with them. To those who do not know the reality, it seems that she is an amazing hands-on crafty mom. 


Many social media posts leave me wondering who the real person is or what their true thoughts are. Is my perception of reality that incorrect or is the social media post intentionally misleading?  It is my belief that people lie on their social media platforms in order to portray the exact person they would like to be. 



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