Some will say social media is the worst thing that has ever happened to my generation; others will say it’s the best. Honestly, it’s just the perspective you look at it from. Social media has made thousands of people in my generation millionaires, whether it’s from TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram. If you look at it from that perspective, it has changed thousands of people’s lives for the better. If you were to ask them their opinion on social media, I can almost guarantee you they would have a positive answer. However, social media isn’t always great. It can bring a lot of insecurities and the feeling to need to be perfect on a lot of people, whether it’s from how many likes you get on a picture on Instagram to if you should post a TikTok.

Growing up in this time with social media as involved in my life as much as it is has taught me a lot. Social media has been apart of my life throughout my teenage years. Sometimes I wonder how different the world would be if we didn’t have social media. News would be one of the major differences. We can get information on something minutes after it has happened. Although, this is not necessarily a bad thing because it benefits our safety and education on certain things. If we did not have social media or the internet we would have to wait days to get information.

I can say firsthand that social media has affected my life in a negative way. As hard as it is to say, I am always worried about if I should post a certain picture or how many likes I get. “Well, why don’t you just get off social media?” is what you’re probably thinking. It’s not that easy because we have always grown up with it; we are addicted. Depending on the country, nine out of 10 teens are on social media. This is honestly not surprising to me at all. Statistics show that when you are depressed, lonely, anxious, and/or stressed you use social media more often to feel connected to others. Statistics also show that using social media more often increases FOMO and feelings of inadequacy, dissatisfaction and isolation.