Ahhhh good ole social media….so amazing when it started. It was a great way to find past friends, reconnect with them, and keep in touch. However, the dark side of social media soon became apparent. The impact of social media, especially in younger people, is a very serious consequence facing modern society. Social media is a compilation of people’s perfect moments, and is certainly not reality. People only show the best things, filtered pictures, and all they want to ‘boast’ about to others, without seeming like they are actually boasting. This has had a very negative impact on others, mainly younger people who tend to feel that somehow they are lacking in some way after viewing what their online friends post. They start to feel that others have more money, more fun, more beauty, a better figure, or simply have things that they want for themselves. Most of the things posted on social media are a quick moment in time, and in no way reflects what a person’s true day to day looks like. Most of the pictures people post of themselves are so edited and filtered, they look nothing like the person! Self-esteem can be greatly affected by social media if we are not careful. Then there are those who use social media as a way to boost THEIR self-esteem. They measure their worth by the number of ‘likes’ their posts and pictures receive. The absurdity is alarming. A lot of social media friends are not even people they know, and yet they place so much weight and importance on the opinions of these people. Again, this is something affecting the younger ones mainly. Is it possible to be a part of social media without the negatives? Yes it is. As most things, being in touch with yourself, knowing your self-worth and who you are, is key. None of us should be in competition with anyone but ourselves. It should not matter what others are doing or anything else, even if they choose to broadcast it all over social media. Realize that most of what we see on social media is not real….let that be your guide. Try to keep only people that you actually know on your social media accounts. Why would anyone want strangers on their list of friends? Stop caring about what other people think of you, your pictures, or your posts. You should be happy with you, that’s it. The most important thing is, keep your privacy in tact. People do not need to know everything you are doing, and if you feel the need to constantly post everything about yourself on social media, please ask yourself why.