Authenticity on social media is a myth. The soul purpose of social media in any manifestation is the need to feel validated by our peers. Many times it is an unhealthy amount of validation. The ego gets lifted or put down with every post. Sinful humans interacting with other sinful humans, causing chaos and heartache. In the same feed there is praising of oneself as well as the putting down of oneself. Anger and hatred and love and kindness, many emotions could be in one story. Sadness and joyfulness courageously flaunted about. Teenagers and adults alike throwing temper tantrums because of menial things that, in many cases, won’t have an effect on them ten years down the road. The audacity of the “karen’s” on facebook is overwhelmingly overrated. Complaints saturate the social media platforms so much that when a genuine post floats down your screen it seems like something out of a sci-fi movie. You aren’t prepared. You never planned for this. What will you do? What do most people do? “It’s a scam!” “It’s Fake!” “You’ve changed!”.
It is hard to be authentic on any social media. There is an unspoken standard to uphold on social media and if you don’t meet that standard you are cast out, you loose “followers” and “friends”. People in real life treat you differently. Realism isn’t real on social media, it is only what people present as real. It is their own version of the story that can’t always be trusted. It’s more than usual to have opinions over facts. News outlets cause havoc on social medias causing differing views to bring arguments in the simplest of comment sections. So many times when someone speaks out for a cause on social medias there Is a rebuttal. There is a political statement in every passive aggressive “Karen commenter”. Everyone has an opinion on everything. Catching up with relatives and friends has become a melting pot of bad decisions and regrets.
The anxiety and emotions caused by social media can bring forth a new kind of addiction. One that is feed by dopamine hits to the brain. Every like, view, comment, swipe up, direct message, and reaction causes the brain to long for more of the dopamine it had previously encountered. It creates social media “zombies” as I call them. People who physically can’t stay away from their phones for more than ten minutes. It creates a world in need of the “grid”. Nobody is independent anymore because they are always one tap away from another twitter post or another instagram story.
I’m not saying that there isn’t any good in social media, because there certainly is some. The statement I’m making is that the cons outweigh the pros a million to one. Possibly the worst part about social media is the effect that it has caused on our brains. We are bored so much more easily all of the time. This is time we could be devoting to work, our relationships in real life, our friends and families, our relationship with our savior Jesus Christ, and our relationship with ourselves. As a christian we should never be bored, we should never have a moment in which we feel like we have nothing to do. Stop for a moment, put your phone down, and get right with yourself and God. How can you more align with His plan right now?
ClayMan Media 