Reflective Essay about Social Media

Social media consists of various websites and applications that allow people to interact and share content with others. This includes the ability to communicate with anyone and everyone, networking for both personal and business reasons, and sharing ideas, thoughts, and information with the world. Social media has played a large part in many peoples’ lives since it was first created up until now, both positive and negative. 

The first form of social media was created in 1997. In 1999, blogging sites became wildly popular, which would later spark the creation now well known apps, like Facebook and Instagram. Facebook was created in 2004 as a way for people to get in touch and keep in contact with others, and was later followed by the creation of Instagram in 2010. Instagram quickly outshined other social media apps, and is still preferred by most people to this day. I first started using social media in 2012 when I was 11 years old. I had first downloaded Instagram because all of my friends had convinced me to do so. At the time, we would all just post nonsense and silly pictures that would be shared with everyone at school. We were all using it just for fun and to let everyone know what we were doing all the time. I used to be so excited to use it everyday just to check in with my friends. Instagram is still in my life today, but I don’t use it nearly as much as I had once did. The app has changed from being a little bit of fun to share with some friends to now just posting pictures of yourself to keep up with the aesthetic of your feed. Now it seems that the app has turned into a popularity contest, seeing who can get the most random people to interact with their page. This, without a doubt, leads to many people having insecurities. It goes without question that social media can have many negative effects on a person’s mental health, including a poor self image and jealousy issues. 

Social media used to be the only way I would contact any of my friends. I remember it was so exciting to log into my Instagram, Snapchat, or Kik to see if I had received any new messages or notifications. Now my social media use is very limited. I will occasionally use Instagram or Snapchat to post updates of my life, and to check in with others. Of the two, I would say I use Instagram the most because it is the only app where I will actually post my own content, on occasion. I would say that I am quite reserved on Instagram, considering I only post maybe two or three times per year. My posts are all revolved around what I am doing with my friends at the time. The people I post with are the also the only friends that I really interact with. My Instagram shows that I like to keep my life private, both on social media and in real life, where I keep my circle of friends pretty small.  The person I am according to my social media definitely reflects how I am in real life; I’m pretty reserved and have one friend group that I am always with. What people on Instagram don’t get to see is how I am with those close friends of mine, which is like a completely different person. With those people I feel comfortable with, I am loud, outgoing, eccentric, and always wanting to be adventurous. Even though my individual posts do not reflect how I am as a person, I would say that my instagram page does show that I am a private person.

Social media most definitely has an effect on people’s perception. Being able to see into people’s personal lives through social media based applications can lead to people making assumptions about others’ lives. There is only so much that one can display about themselves on the internet, so it is very easy for people to let themselves guess the rest. Many people on these apps are considered “influencers,” where they have a huge following, most of the time it is solely based on that person’s physical appearance. It is easy to find yourself feeling insecure when you are looking at these pictures of people on a daily basis. A lot of the time, these pictures are heavily edited so that they meet certain standards. Social media consists of unrealistic beauty standards and a tendency for people to flaunt their wealth and possessions. With this being said, it is very common for people to feel very insecure in the way they look and how they live their lives, based on these almost impossible to attain standards that are being set. 

The use of social media is a great way for people to socially interact with their peers and to keep up with the lives of people they know. While there are many positive attributes associated with the use of social media, the negative part it plays on people’s mental health and altered perception of the world often goes unnoticed.