Social Media Personalities

Social Illusion

Sponge Bob image from memegenerator.net

By: Tempestt Flaggs

        Social Media has taken us by storm these past couple of decades. It went from something fun to do if you had time to something that most people access daily. People use to use social media to express themselves and represent their personalities. Some people's looks and interesting personalities cause them to become popular and in some cases famous. This was the start of social media influencers as we know it. But what if I tell you social media is an allusion and some of these influencers faked it til they made it. In the past ten years, social media has changed into everyone living a fantasy life versus everyone being themselves and talking about their normal everyday lives.

Parenting Illusion 

        It has been about five years since I graduated high school and everyone in my class is in a different position in life and their social media content reflects this. There are some people who have started families and they post a lot of family photos or videos of their kids. For the outsider looking in it appear that having a kid(s) and making a family is cute and fun. I have friends that post this kind of content every day. But anyone who has kids know this is not a cakewalk. Kids can be a handful from them saying everything that is on their minds to them making messes that are difficult to clean. Most parents are actually really overwhelmed and burnt out 90% of the time. Life is hard when you have to provide for kids especially with prices going up every week. But we won't know that from the cut picture and videos being posted.

Luxury Illusion 

        There are some individuals who went more of the social influencer route. From the looks of their social media, life is going well. They post pictures of all their recent travel especially if they look fancy.  They post really great pictures of themselves. They are living the life that most wish they had. But knowing some people who actually do this I know it all an allusion. I have friends that are so good at this they have people thinking they live in California and they actually still live at their parent's house in Texas. One time me and my friend went to Las Vegas and she took many photos and different outfits. That she posted over a span of a year alluding that she had been to Vegas many times throughout that year. Really it was only once. Most of these people are living normal lives working a 9 to 5. 

College Illusion 

           From a young child, I had a false perception of college from all the movies and shows that I watched around that time. Now we have social media that continues to carry the narrative that college is fun and full of parties. This may be true but not all college is though. From the picture that most people post shows them enjoying parties, or entering a fraternity or sorority. There are so many pictures glorifying the college lifestyle. But for those of us that actually attend or attended college, we know there is so much more to it. No one is posting about how they stayed up all night to write a paper. No one talks about how stress we get especially when you have to write eight blogs in one semester. Rushing a frat or sorority is very difficult and many people do not make it in. But from all the glorifying most people would not know any of this. 

Conclusion

        Many people find themselves comparing their lives to others,s, especially with social media at our fingertips. We fail to realize social media is what we make it, so everyone is not going to post the negative or what really goes on in there day to day lives. Social media used to be a real place where people could actually relate to the people on their feeds. But over the last decade, it has made a drastic shift. People are obsessed with making seem fun and exciting. We fail to realize that other people are doing the same and began to lust for what other people post. We need to realize social media is an illusion and it is what every we make. But at the end of the day, we are just normal people chasing the illusions.