Life is not an Instagram or Facebook account

Is social media more harmful than good? Depends on how you use it. It should be for making connections and not for getting acceptance. 

Acceptance should come from within, if you don't love yourself and accept yourself as you are, just the way you are, with your quirks and imperfections, your past mistakes and regrets, your goals, dreams, values and desires. If you don't have that going for yourself, you're not going to get it from the outside world. Many people have this idealized version of themselves that they want to put online and when that idealized version doesn't match reality it can be harmful. It's no coincidence that studies have shown that social media use has been linked to increase depression, feeling of isolation and self-harm. It can lead to people feeling inadequate about their life or their appearance. It can make people feel lonely and isolated.  I also think that it makes you shallower, cuts your attention span and makes you pay attention to the wrong things, honestly. 

So before you post the next picture online, you must ask yourself, who am I posting it for? what purpose is this serving?  For me I like to post pictures on IG of things that I want to remember about that day, my audience is future me. If people in my life like the pic great, if not, that's okay. 

I used to think I could use Facebook to change people's mind, I just posted a link to the NPR story about Florida's war against trans rights, but I should know better than that, I don't think FB can be used to reach out and change people's minds about stuff like that, most of the time it just preaching to the choir.  What gives me hope is that maybe there's someone out there on the fence about the issue (it's 2023, not sure if that is realistic) and then they see my post and it persuades them. 

Anyway, my take on the whole social media thing is that you can use it for a good purpose and it won't be harmful however keep in mind that the people behind these apps are spending millions of dollars on figuring out how to capture your attention to make a profit. You are the product and if your well-being the price to pay to get you to be on their app they will gladly pay that price for you. 

Anyway, I got to get  to work now.

-JV