Blog Post #19- Social Media

Social media platforms play a big part in a teenager lives. Social Media platforms are a way a person can express themselves. These platforms allow people to post or share what their life is like, what interests them, and you can customize it to make it more you. For example, Instagram. You can post pictures of your life, customize your bio, make your own profile picture and create your own highlights. 

With social media allowing people to express themselves, it has its pros and cons. However, social media can become very toxic if it is not controlled. 

Some people that struggle with finding happiness within themselves or feel insecure can have a hard time on social media. When people post pictures, they can compare themselves. This makes people feel really crappy about themselves and give that feeling that they are not enough. They can also compare their life. For example, a person from their school is posting about how cool their life is and how they are always doing something while the person looking could be at home in bed with no plans. Social media can be a toxic cycle ruining peoples mental health. 

Social media is addicting. By devoting so much of your time on social media causes a toll on people's mental health. The more you go on the more you will feel the need to be on social media. If you are constantly posting, you will begin a cycle. If you shape your routine around social media, you are going to depend on it. For example, when you wake up in the morning you check your phone and go on social media, then when you are in-between classes, even before going to sleep you check your phone and go on some sort of platform. Every time you are on social media you make it apart of routine. It is something that you do daily. 

When this comes to people's mental health it can make people feel crappy about themselves. This is because they see people happy, in a relationship, a good family life or with perfect looks and they start to think negative of themselves. Not everything you see on social media is true and the reality of it is its fake. People post certain things to make their lives look better and more eventful than it actually is. 

When it comes to comparing this to my opening scene, my protagonist is struggling with social media, and it is taking a toll on their mental health. They are reminiscing on what things use to be and how different her life would be if she looked like the girls, she compares herself to.