Your daily decisions or self doubt should not be based on what you see on someone’s else’s “page”. Because their page, is just that, a page. A highlight of the good, while conveniently leaving out the sad or negative parts. Their real life isn’t being shown in full with the behind the scenes reality. Even before social media, there was social status comparisons. Comparisons that lead to a sense of not being enough. Thus perpetuating a wave of potential mental health ripples of ups and downs for those watching others lives instead of living their own.

If your scrolling and see friends celebrating a milestone anniversary, you congratulate their achievement! Meanwhile you may be divorced, single, have failed relationships, or a long term diddy if your own. If you’re the friend celebrating the 15 year relationship, you know it wasn’t always a smooth journey. I’ve been in each position (long term and the sad and lonely) so I don’t even know where I would claim to have success or failure anymore.

So many people go to the internet to put on a fake persona and present to you this strong put together image. You ever meet someone in person that has a strong voice and following behind their app of choice and then in person they are quiet and meek? Social media can create a feeling of failure to live up to a image we so desperately want to portray in real life.

And the children… The poor children of this upcoming generation. When I was 13 I looked like a hairy little gorilla with gapped and buck teeth. Now, 13 year olds are on the internet making YouTube tutorials on contouring the makeup on their face to make them look like a Kardashian of choice. I still couldn’t use makeup at this level if you tried to show me. Kids are not being kids, they are not running around sweaty and smelly having fun on bikes and playing in the fresh air. They are too worried about their image. Now don’t get me wrong, we cared about image back in our day. Except our every moment wasn’t filmed or documented where we could rewatch and pick ourselves apart. We couldn’t watch over and over to find how to alter our truest selves. We didn’t have a quota of likes across apps of millions of people watching. We had our 20 classmates and people we passed in the halls or on the bus.

Clearly I enjoy social media. It’s no secret. It’s ok to be authentic. It’s ok to be different. It’s ok not to do everything everyone else is. If you want to jump on the trends, go for it, maybe switch it up for you! It’s also ok not to be on at all! That doesn’t make you a freak! That makes you present to the world and people around you.

“Don’t compare your life to others. There’s no comparison between the sun and the moon. They shine when it’s their time.” – Found on the Interwebs