How much is social media lying to you?

In the vastness of the world wide web, where every swipe and scroll on social media unveils a plethora of filtered images and seemingly endless joyous moments of perfection, it does seem easy to wonder how everything seems so flawless and unblemished. 

Underneath all that bravado and glee, there lies many factors which when taken a closer look at, may seem alarming and give others a perspective that shows why social media seems very superficial, especially nowadays. 

Let's address the elephant in the room — the very cherry-picked world of social media! Although it makes sense to capture those perfect waves on the sea, that lavish fine dining gourmet meal, or that velvety, fluffy heart on top of your morning latte social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, are meticulously constructed to only view the best and most picture-perfect posts, which often are a far cry from the reality we live in. 

Behind every photo, every video, and every post lies a curated process which is always aimed at portraying an "ideal" version of oneself to the world. 

Think of it this way: Have you ever staged a photo to get it just right? Ever spent 10 minutes trying to capture that perfect angle lining up your coffee cup with the alluring backdrop while precisely four rays of sunshine hit the perfect ratios? All while your coffee has gone cold and probably will not taste as good. All that for a handful of likes online really makes you think about what social media really is taking away from us. Every moment has to be picture-perfect otherwise it will not be enough.

You or I are not the only ones unconsciously doing this routine. It seems everyone is doing it. That's because social media resembles an echo chamber where thanks to the highly complex algorithms of the different platforms, we are receiving an endless amount of "perfect moments" that only feed our need to be the same. 

The effect this has on people is that it changes our opinions and tastes without even experiencing these in real life. Being constantly bombarded online by the same quality and quantity for that matter, re-enforces these beliefs into us and as a result we automatically strive to do the same.

What this behaviour leads to is an endless loop of comparisons. This is one of the major contributors to the ever-changing trends on social media platforms you see today. 

Once something becomes viral, everyone jumps on the hype train so to speak and suddenly overnight, everyone's partaking in the same trend. This is simply because no one wants to feel left behind on viral clips online and they feel the urge to always be on top of the trending pages. 

Social media, in its glossy fictitiousness, can skew our perspective of life's norms and make us feel like we need to always be catching up.

And then there's the addictive quest for likes and hearts. Each one resonated with us like a mini dopamine hit. This turns social media into a performance act where the goal becomes to impress rather than just sharing. This creates a competition-like scenario where everyone must look happy, rich, or in love. 

What happens is that people then end up in a never-ending race for validation and affirmation from people you probably never have and never will meet! 

So, the very important takeaway from all this is to enjoy being online, seeing all the posts from people living the "highlife", enjoy the show but keep in mind that it's just that — a show.