Ten years ago, we would never have been debating it, but now, with social media, not having a profile or following online doesn’t just look bad; it tells the world that people who don’t have an account are considered boring. But is that really true, or just what social media is designed to do by the way it is filtered?
According to demandsage.com, Instagram has three billion monthly users, almost half of the world’s population. YouTube has over two billion users, TikTok has 1.9 billion monthly users, and Snapchat has 900 million monthly users. Even though these platforms are slightly different, they all follow the same design to keep people hooked on their websites.
One of the biggest reasons people use social media is to keep in touch with others. Most people do this with stories, reels, or posts. Another thing people like to do on social media is take pictures to share with their followers. However, one of the biggest problems with social media is that it compares somebody’s highlight reel to another person’s normal life, and that comparison can cause anxiety, depression, and other symptoms.
A lot of the pictures we see on social media are carefully chosen, filtered, and made in a way to make a person’s life look better than it really is. Additionally, taking photos for social media can impact the importance that the memory they made had on them. According to vice.com, even though photos can help us remember certain events, they limit our ability to remember what was said. Taking photos to post can also make people feel like they are performing for other people rather than enjoying the moment themselves.
Even though photos on social media can build a positive community, this is rarely the case. According to cybersmile.org, more than three-quarters of people compare themselves to others on social media, 36% feel jealous comparing themselves to others on social media, while another 32% feel unsatisfied. However, the biggest factor is that 96% of people feel emotionally impacted when comparing themselves to others. Social media is by far the leading cause of comparison among people, which can leave them exhausted and sad about their own lives. Additionally, more than a third of social media users feel like a failure when they compare themselves and another 14% have faced suicidal thoughts. Pictures only make the comparison worse.
Beyond comparison, social media also offers validation through likes and shares. 28% of social media users reported that likes and shares made them feel validated; however, a lot of the people and connections on social media are shallow, and it has caused a lot of anxiety to perform. The average person spends more than two hours of their whole day on social media, which shows how much people who use it rely on the app to keep them updated.
As social media has become more advanced, comparison, anxiety, and validation that come with social media, including pictures, are a big reason why I believe we take pictures to post and not for the actual memories. Taking pictures to post isn’t only about comparison; it’s also about the validation people rely on it, and how most people end up using these apps.
