The emergence of Social Media is stressful. Of course, platforms like facebook and the likes have many benefits. Staying in contact was never that easy. But observing the life of other people has its darker sides as well.
The power lies in the hands of the consumer. But if the consumer is influenced easily or naive platforms like Instagram can do much harm. Especially adolescents love to compare themselves to other teenagers. Just imagine your 13 year old self in today’s world; equipped with a smart phone and all the different apps those come with. It’s bad enough that puberty nowadays can be documented so easily. It’s even worse that with a single click you have access to the Instagram profiles of all those beautiful, skinny internet celebrities who seem like they would lead the perfect life. That those pictures are not real life is easy to understand – even by 13 year olds. But the feelings of jealousy, not feeling attractive and being of lesser worth than these top models are.
And if you happen to be one of the lucky few that have earned internet recognition life is no walk of cake, either. No matter what you do – witnessing the most beautiful sun set, having the perfect meal or dancing blissfully at a festival – you’ll always have the urge to take a picture of those things. As if your experience somehow not valid if you don’t press upload.
The truth however is that some moments come at their best if you put your mobile aside for a while. It may be that we already know this. But from time to time we all need a little reminder to enjoy life a bit offline.
