What We do for Social Media and How It Shapes Our Minds.

Yesterday when reading a blog by Riane Konc that was themed around the roll the birth of their child had in the rising of their social medias, it struck me how some people go to the extremes for likes. How far do some people go? When someone learns they're with child are they looking forward to the Instagram posts immediately? How many events do people go to get some trendy pictures? As my mind dug deeper with more questions, I wonder how much this obsession with likes or approval also leads into our societies' everyday life.

How far do some people go? 

We know that practically everyone is constantly chasing clout on social media. Luckily, we're past the Tid Pod eating days, but we're always onto a new trend or act of stupidity for more views, likes, or followers. Past the most extremes, people do go out of their way for their socials. This past fall I had a friend say she was too hungover and didn't want to go to Wurstfest for a second night but, she said she "didn't get good enough pictures the night before." Her motivation to go out again even though she wanted to get some rest was to get some better pictures for her Instagram. I understand wanting to look good on your socials but putting our it above our self care is crazy. I'm not saying most of the world is doing this, but most of us are over-indulged in social media. Is it because some of us are just chasing likes or are we chasing approval that we're lacking from somewhere else.

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Are the feelings our socials bring us hiding our real feelings?

When we get super involved with our socials some of us could often build a profile that doesn't reflect how they're really living or feeling. Even though we're supposed to be expressing ourselves on social media we do everything we can to make everyone else think we're doing good. Maybe it helps us feel better, as Mead says while evaluating the aspect of "me", we view ourselves through the how others view us. So, maybe if everyone else thinks we're happy, we'll begin to think so ourselves. Doesn't that sound a little unhealthy though? Forcing a perception of ourselves onto ourselves through making our followers believe we're ok? Wouldn't putting this prescribed feeling on ourselves time and time again eventually hurt us? As we all know, we can't truly get through our hardships through social media. If we don't legitimately deal with our feelings, we will eventually have serious emotional or mental health issues. The way I look at Mead's analogy we do see ourselves through the "me" theory, which does influence the "I" theory. Even though I find this to be true we have to have some actual real feelings of self. I did this to myself recently, not through social media but just through going out and drinking constantly. While I was temporarily hiding my feelings from myself, eventually it lead to some serious anxiety and depression.

Does our obsession with likes lead into our everyday life? 

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 When our amount of likes doesn't reach the expected or hoped for number some of us may feel rejected or not loved. This is a direct example of "me." It reminds me of Simone's blog on her questioning why one of her followers isn't liking her post anymore, over-analyzing it to the extremes. This is easy to do when talking about social media but, when we obsess with these things does it carry over into our everyday or social lives? I believe this makes us question our friends when they don't come out for a couple weekends. Instead of our minds thinking practically like 'oh they're just busy', we may begin to question if they're upset with us or avoiding us. In social interaction I believe some of us may begin to get upset if we're not getting the same excitement in conversation than usually.
Do our socials make us think of ourselves too much?

I think we also get a more selfish attitude from being too into our socials as well. The constant analyzation of ourselves leads us to be blinded from what all is happening around us. Naturally as humans we are selfish beings, so we don't need to think of ourselves anymore than we already do. It's quite obvious the reasons when we get too involved with our socials we would be lead to become too self-centered. Especially if you suddenly went viral or had a rise in followers, this would raise your self-esteem, which sounds good and dandy because it seems that socials are always lowering self-esteem. Is this materialistic success really something to glorify yourself for? Even if we don't realize it I think this glorification of "fame" or more likes leads us to think more of ourselves than others. It also could give a false feeling of entitlement, as if we deserve to get our way constantly.