By Stephanie Gross
Staff Writer
Social media is a double edged sword; it seems to either make or break relationships. It has also seemed to make society more vain.
“But first, let me take a selfie.”
Even popular song lyrics talk about the trend to take ones photo and show the world their face. While social media can be beneficial with maintaining long distance relationships, it also festers a narcissistic and self absorbed culture.
“In photos, especially on Instagram, people use filters on their photos to make themselves look better and then people get the impression on how they are supposed to look to be accepted into society,” junior Jose Castillo said.
Lives are revolving around how many likes they are able to get on a photo or status or how many followers they have. It is all a numbers game, and the more numbers, the more popular a person appears to be.
Social media does not really document real life, but just the minor highlights of it, such as summer vacations, parties or weekends out with friends or family. Not that anything is wrong with that, but it creates a false illusion as to how people really live. Also, it makes in person relationships much more awkward for some.
“Social media makes it a lot harder for people to talk in person. It makes thing very different and people tend to go to social media and texting before talking to one another in person,” sophomore Megan Bell said.
Social media is not a bad thing, in fact it has made is much easier for people around the world connect with one another.
“Social media is a great way to connect people locally, nationally and globally. I feel like I have been able to build connections with people from all over the world, which is really cool,” Castillo said.
The major downside to that is how narcissistic the whole idea is.
“Social media seems to strengthen some relationships but also break others because of things like Twitter fights and making it harder for people to talk in person,” senior Grayson Zimmerman said.
In today’s society, there is such a high expectation of physical looks. These expectations are taken very seriously and models and actresses who appear in magazines and on television are seriously influencing how many girls feel about their outward appearance. When social media is added to the mix, the equation does not equal out to be a good one.
Scrolling down a Twitter or Instagram feed, it is not hard to come across numerous photos of selfies or solo photos of people. Society is to blame for the overwhelming number of these photos.
Other than vanity, social media has an addicting aspect to it. If someone posts a photo of themselves to their social media page and receive attention for it, they are most likely going to do it again.
“Selfies are fine, but I believe that people are taking and posting way too many selfies on Instagram and Twitter,” Bell said.
Society has changed quite a bit over the years and social media has been a huge factor of those changes.
It will be interesting to see how social media will evolve with society over the years.
