Social media affects self esteem

The world is constantly evolving. Each day trillions of posts, photos, comments and videos are shared and judged. New makeup and fashion looks change everyday. Everyone is pressured by the look of perfection and trends from beauty gurus and overall well known famous people. Seeing these posts can make people feel distraught. People need to keep a high self esteem about themselves while using these social links.

With just over 150 billion people using Snapchat everyday, it’s like a never ending food chain. People are always trying to become better than others and sometimes by putting them down. Being a fan of these sites, I have witnessed several accounts of people feeling bad from others’ looks. Comments on celebrities posts such as, “ Can I be you,” “I’m so jealous,” “I would die to look like that” and the most used “ You’re so perfect” demonstrate people’s lowering self esteem.

But what defines perfect? Free from any flaw or defect in condition or quality; faultless states the dictionary. But what defines us as humans is our flaws. No one can literally be perfect. Although comments are uplifting and satisfying to the people receiving them, they shouldn’t be bringing the viewers feelings and self confidence down.

Most people say that if you don’t want to get negative mindsets from social media then just stay off of it. But it isn’t that easy. With the commercial world also evolving, people can’t go onto an informational site without at least four ads popping up. Even if the site is informational and not involving social posts. You can even get negative feelings or biased opinions from these ads. They make users feel a certain guilt of how they should look by using photo editors. The only way to get rid of them is to pay, which some say isn’t worth it. If a company is going to sponsor ads then users should get to pick the ads of brands being displayed based on what they use or want. That way no one feels pressured.  Users should also be able to filter what social media is shown on personal profiles. If sites and apps would take this into consideration then people may not feel as much guilt about themselves.

There needs to be a limit to what people may comment. Comments should be uplifting and polite without over obsessing and changing the mindset of themselves. This way both the person posting and the person viewing can be happy. Social media should be used to inspire and uplift not to self judge and bring people down.