Reflective Essay Sample about Social Media

I received my first phone at the age of thirteen. Within a day, I had Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and possibly any form of social media downloaded. Why? Because everyone had it. From that point on I was addicted to it. Seeing the most wonderful lives my friends were living and posting mine. It took a click of a button to put every move I made out for anyone to see. Everyone talks about the future of technology and how great it is, what they don’t talk about is how fake it is. As you scroll through social media apps you see pictures of the happiest families and how perfect their lives are, but that’s just for show. Behind the bikini pictures, that girl is struggling with an eating disorder. Behind the happily married couple, is divorce papers sitting on the kitchen counter. You don’t see what’s happening behind the light pulling you in. This makes you question, are you good enough? What are you doing wrong? Why isn’t your marriage successful? Why aren’t you as skinny as her? They seem so happy their life must be perfect. In reality, we are all living the same shitty lives using social media to seem better than one another. 

My first experience with the reality of what living online is really like was in the sixth grade. I remember being in the movie theater with some friends when I could feel my phone blowing up. I looked down to see numerous texts, calls, and comments on Instagram. When I opened my phone I realized that someone had made a fake account of me to try to make me look bad. I was shocked. I cried for days because I was getting so attacked. But even after that I went on with life and continued to post the good things that happened in my life, never the bad. Behind the screen, you can be whoever you want and say whatever you want. I could be a totally different person than I say I am, hence the show catfish. Social media is destroying the world and taking our self-esteem down with it. 

Now, whoever thought it was a great idea to be the first person to send a nude photo of themselves, thanks, you fucked up every generation to come. From the time I was in middle school to a high school junior I have heard and seen, yes seen, nude photos going around the school because it was sent on Snapchat. I would love to ask the whole world, why in the world would you think it was a good idea to send yourself naked to someone you barely know. Oh, but you thought you could trust them? Oops, I guess you were wrong and now the entire city has seen your body and if used against you you’re in jail for child pornography. But social media has made it a norm, from porn to magazines, to celebrities posting almost completely nude photos on Instagram. But now it's just seen as body positivity. Strange right? Because it's a trend to send nude pictures, now that picture is there forever and can be used against you. Funny how social media works.

Oh, shit, the guy I liked texted me and now I'm dead in a ditch on the side of the road. Did you know that in 2019 three thousand one hundred and forty-two people died from texting and driving? Probably not because you're busy texting Steven about the Instagram post that Vanessa just made. But Payten everyone I know does it and they haven’t died yet. See the keyword here is yet, to be blunt, it’s not if it's when. We are so addicted to the point where we have to put our own lives in danger to answer a text that can be answered in five minutes when we get home. I promise you are more likely to die answering that text than making Steven wait a few minutes. 

What else could social media possibly do to me payten? Well, grandpa is dead and the last time you saw him you spent the entire time watching tiktoks. Most people can’t go a day without being on their phones. Put the damn phone down and spend time with your family, they aren’t gonna be here forever. I was once told that the mortality rate is 100%, can you believe that? Did you ever stop to think that your mom could die tomorrow and you simply ignored her to be on your phone? That's what it does to you, it sucks you in, to the point where you are completely unaware of what is going on around you.

It doesn’t make you any cooler or less cool if you are a part of this addiction or not. No one can help yourself but you. You may have read this entire speech and think I'm wrong, but my guess is if you are still here you’re listening. Being addicted to social media is no different than being addicted to the strongest drug in the world. This drug is destroying us. Eating disorders, cheating, lying, drugs, posting nudes, that’s all cool now. You’ve been cat-fished, the whole school has seen your nudes, dead on the side of the road, and grandpas dead just because you needed to feed your addiction. It took me three years to step back and take a look from a different perspective, and even writing this I'm speechless. Social media isn’t good and it never has been.