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Social Media

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Social media has become the center of our lives. It influences us to be like others and not really think for ourselves. It also gives us a way to present ourselves however we want. We post on social media and most likely show/present ourselves as if our lives are happy and perfect. However, the happier our social media posts and profiles are, the more sad and insecure about are selves that we are. For example, We might be afraid that people outside would see that we had been crying and judge us, but social media offers us a platform on which we could ensure an "acceptable" appearance. There is a twitter thread that someone posted asking people to post a picture that they had put on social media when they were unhappy or going through a hard time. 

Who we are is shaped by how we declare ourselves on social media and how we interpret others. Other people on social media present themselves in the same way we do. They fake their happiness and only show us what they feel like showing us. We don’t know what they are going through and we believe what we want to believe. It could be a bad breakup, parents divorcing, death in the family, etc. Their fake happiness produces envy. Being envious of others and putting on a front makes us feel insecure, not good enough, and makes us wish we had these “fake” perfect lives that everyone else has. We try to "compete" with them. This goes back to faking our own happiness. 

Faking our own happiness and being envious of others is rough on us psychologically. Our generation uses social media to fill emptiness inside, hoping it will fix our insecurities. Social media does not cure insecurities, in fact it puts us at war with ourselves. Like said previously, the happier our social media posts and profiles are, the more sad and insecure about are selves that we are. By creating this false version of ourselves on social media at young ages, our brains are trained to uphold 2 separate and very different personalities; one for our day-to-day life, and one for social media. This can leave us asking the complex philosophical question ‘Who am I?’ or ‘Why am I here?’ or ‘What is my purpose if I am lying about who I actually am?’. New generations are being taught their job is to put out the best image of themselves out to the world. This can be very detrimental to a developing mind and confuse their sense of worth at an extremely young age. Consciousness of the 2 separate personalities each of us have is dangerous. It takes peace away from us by constantly making us evaluate ourselves and which persona to display for each setting. 

Social media is hard on our "self". It causes us to lack self confidence, have envy of others, and not think too much for ourselves. We mindlessly scroll through Instagram and like pictures of people we see with "perfect" lives, wonder why we don't look like them or have a perfect life, then we post pictures of ourselves showing how happy we are with captions that everyone uses. Philosopher René Descartes believed in introspection and self-confidence. Stand by your principles in life, and don’t get influenced by what others are saying or presenting to you. Have confidence in yourself. He also believed in methodic doubt. We should doubt what others tell us, or in this case, what they present to us on social media. Using methodic doubt Is essential to developing self-confidence and is the only way for you to develop beliefs that are truly yours and not someone else’s.

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Quiz Questions

1. What is social media? 
2. What causes envy of others on social media?
3. What is 1 question social media can make us ask ourselves? 
4. What is social media detrimental to?
5. Who believes in introspection, self-confidence, and methodic doubt?

Discussion Questions

1. Do you think you have questioned yourself because of social media?
2. Do you think social media is as important as society makes it out to be?
3. Do you get envious of others on social media?
4. Do you think methodic doubt would help develop/strengthen self confidence?


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Sources

https://strongerrr.com/lack-self-confidence-start-thinking-like-rene-descartes/

https://revelpreview.pearson.com/epubs/pearson_chaffee/OPS/xhtml/ch03_sec_04.xhtml

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/people-are-revealing-truth-behind-their-happy-looking-social-media-posts-its-heartbreaking.html