Social media is a place where we constantly see new relationships forming. Brittany is now in a relationship with Bob on Facebook! Look at their kissing pictures on Instagram! Look at them tweet relationship goals at each other on Twitter! Look at her pin date ideas on Pinterest!
I grew up with an obsession with social media. It started with Myspace where I had like 4,000 friends and all the attention I wasn’t getting in middle school was coming through the internet. From there, I was getting tweets as text messages to my EnV flip phone. I eventually got to join the Facebook world (which I hated because…Myspace forever). I had a Pinterest, joined Klout, downloaded Snapchat, and Instagram – I immersed myself into the social media culture.
When I got my first boyfriend at 16, all I wanted to do was share it with the social media world. My boyfriend at the time, being a couple of years older than me, didn’t understand the phenomenon. He didn’t understand why I would passive aggressively like the comments his ex girlfriend made on his Facebook. He didn’t understand why I always wanted him to take pictures of me to post on Instagram. He didn’t understand why he could see my Snapchat best friends and why it mattered if I was his number one.
It was understandable that he thought I was crazy, social media wasn’t his obsession but it is to most people my age.
We use our social media to portray the best parts of our lives. We use it to make us look cool and show everyone from high school we’re doing 100 times better than them. We use it to show our exes we’re hanging out with new, hotter people. We use it to express our emotions.
From the outside looking in, relationships on social media look perfect. There are perfectly posed pictures and carefully crafted compliments.
Unless a couple is frustrated with each other, then there are sly subtweets and underlying lyrics.
Social media rips our lives wide open and exposes the guts and gore to the world. Remember the next time you’re stalking someone’s twitter timeline or clicking through their edited pictures, not everyone’s lives are as perfect as they seem behind the computer screen.
I’m not bashing social media – I’m still a huge fan – but there is a life to live outside your iPhone. Snap the picture, post it fast, but don’t spend so much time curating your online life that you actually forget to live.
Rosie Culture 
You’re so right… I totally agree with you! I’m slowly caring more and more about my privacy in social media!
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That’s great! I’m trying to not make it such huge part of my life anymore.
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Reblogged this on Hookup Culture.
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Just think about how many relationships that have been adversely affected because of social media. People really need to compartmentalize parts of their lives that don’t need to be shared.
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Oh I so agree, balance is def the key. I’m only on WordPress and Instagram but yet it consumes so much of one’s hours even without realising.. I’ve made it a mission to dedicate more time to other hobbies outside of social media. Thank you for this lovely xx
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Reblogged this on LIVING AND LEARNING.
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Thank you for reblogging!
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I’ve always liked social media but never became obsessed with it. MySpace was my favorite but, after that I fell off. I never really got into Twitter– didn’t know you could get tweets to your phone, never heard of Klout or having best friends on SnapChat? (Never could get into that one either.) Now I use FB for memes & family communications & IG to discover new foodie spots.
I agree that some people forget to live their actual lives though & honestly, can’t believe people fake/carefully curate things to look a certain way. That’s so strange!
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An important lesson to hold close.
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Oh yeah. Social media has definitely made an impact on me growing up. Comparing myself to other women and worry about the likes I get on my posts. It’s a terrible addiction for young folks and it keeps getting worse. My life is sailing around the world with my husband and doggies..being away from social media most of the time is a blessing because I was addicted
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Ooof, I just shuddered thinking about those Snapchat top friends. Lol. It’s also interesting how much things change on platforms, and how stuff like that feels like some kind of core memory even though it was just a couple years ago—kind of speaks to just how much we use the apps. Great (and all too relatable) post!
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