Social Media?

Social media plays a big role in today’s society and in a lot of people's lives. Everything from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Snapchat, it is all something that, especially us millennials, waste a lot of our day interacting with. Even though I am a big social media user, I still have mixed views on whether it impacts us negatively or positively. When you use social media, you are building yourself a virtual identity. I would explain the term ‘virtual identity’ as the character you are made out to be online, which means that your virtual identity can potentially be completely different from your actual identity. I have a virtual identity due to having social media accounts and I would like to think that my virtual identity does not vary much from my actual identity because I do not post on social media sites other than photos and the occasional post, I spend most of my time scrolling to see what others are posting. This is where I think that social media is negatively impacting individuals today. We not only spend so much of our day on social media, but I believe that people are very determined to make their virtual identity look amazing. Coming from a girl’s perspective, social media is something that leads you to compare yourself to others, sometimes resulting in thinking badly about yourself. To further explain my point, read this article. The article is about an individual near my home town, who was both very intelligent and extremely athletic but committed suicide because she would see her friends posting on social media about having fun in college, where as she felt as though she was always studying or playing sports. However, she would post photos as well so that people thought she was doing good in college as well. In this case, her virtual identity and true identity were not the same. This shows how seriously we take social media, and virtual identities. On the other hand, however, I do believe that social media has its benefits as well. Personally, I benefits from social media because it allows me to stay connected with family and friends who do not live by. Social media can either have a positive or negative impact, it all depends on how you use it.