Media and Mentality: Are Social Media Spreading Poor Self-Image?

By Michela Hall

You’re 22 and about to graduate with your Bachelor’s degree from a hoity toity University. You’re $50,000 in debt in student loans, owe $2,000 on your credit card, and are about to miss your gas bill by a couple hours. You haven’t heard from any jobs or graduate programs since you’ve started applying. Oh, and you’re single can’t get rid of those ten pounds you gained over Christmas break.

Scrolling through Facebook, you see your size two high school best friend is engaged, your freshman year roommate is studying abroad in Rome and your ex just booked an internship with the company you applied for.

Just what you needed: an ego boost.

Social media are geared to show only the best and best-looking elements of one’s life. When scrolling through Facebook, Instagram or even Twitter it can be easy to forget that nobody’s going to share their break-up, bad grade or getting fired online. The temporary blinders create automatic comparison between the user and the person who has posted the content. How can everybody else make it seem so easy to have the perfect life?

Then the anxiety kicks in. How do I fix it? How do I get better at everything at once and pay off all my bills and do what they do? What’s the next step? I’ll never get a job I just-

Stop.

Social Media act as a filter from reality to sift through and reveal a perfect profile of who someone is. It’s like building your resume. You’re probably not going to reveal to a potential employer you had a mental breakdown before coming into their office for the interview because you forgot to pay your rent and maxed out your credit card so you really need this job. You’ll most likely say that you enjoy challenges and are working on being more adult with your finances.

Even if you know other people go through hardships, it’s hard to remember that when you may be down and out and the universe’s timing is so impeccable. Not remembering at all that social media are just compilations of the good things people want to share at all is even worse. It’s easy to feel like you’re a mess when you’re constantly reminded of how great everybody else is.

But even if you feel that way, it isn’t true.

Recent findings from a study done at University of Pennsylvania has proved that social media in fact make people feel lonely and depressed. In the study, psychologist Melissa G. Hunt had 143 students report moods prior to the study. One group in the experiment was to limit use of social media to a mere 10 minutes a day per platform, while the other was to use social media as they normally do. Reports after the experiment showed that those who had limited use did not report as lonely and or depressed as the group who used social media without change. Participants of the study also reported feelings of anxiety and “fear of missing out”. Read more about the study here: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/social-media-use-increases-depression-and-loneliness

Whether people want to admit it or not, their lives aren’t perfect, and they don’t want to share that with everybody either. Which is why it’s important to not only not spend too much time on social media, but follow users who are sharing real and raw content with their followers.

Is life cookies and sunshine all the time? No, not really. But maybe it isn’t all college debt and holiday weight either.

Whatever has you down and out, whether it be societal pressure to get the job, travel and be worldly or look perfect all the time, here are five social media accounts you should follow for a reminder that you’re not meant to be perfect. And that’s okay.