Social Media Can Wreck Your Heart

After sitting down with my laptop multiple times attempting to write my first blog entry, I was constantly unable to find the ideas or the words to write. However I was just browsing on facebook and came across a blog entry from CRU at the University of Alabama. The blog post was about how social media can wreck our hearts. The post really struck me as something that I had never contemplated before. Today in my life I can't remember how many times a day I am on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Through social media everyone's lives appear to be so perfect. The pictures and updates portray everyone happy and spending time with friends and boyfriends. It is almost as though we constantly forget  to look past the pictures. These pictures don't tell us the whole story. They solely give us a glimpse into someone's life, but this glimpse is what they portray their lives to be as. In social media we don't see people alone, depressed, and facing extreme hardships. We only see what they want us to see. Social media has further allowed people to hide themselves from reality, and it becomes much harder to help those who need it. The only way I keep in touch with some of my high school friends is through social media. I rarely talk to them, but I occasionally look at their different pages to see if they are still with their boyfriends or just to make sure they are still alive. However, until now I had never thought about the fact that the pictures I was looking at did not depict reality. For all I knew someone could have cancer or have had a friend who committed suicide, but through most social media, I would never know.

Social media marketing uses these different tools to promote their own agendas, and as consumers we must be very conscious of who we are. Social media places so much in front of us constantly. We are constantly seeing the newest fashion trends or the new fad diet, and we must be careful not to become envious of material things we don't have. It is too easy for us to lose sight of ourselves and what we do have. We become ungrateful and selfish. I am not saying that seeing the newest trends is bad, but we cannot let them take over our lives. I like being able to look up cute purses or boots, but I can't let myself become obsessed. These are simply materials that do not define who I am. Social media marketing has so much potential to reach my generation, but companies must carefully plan their strategies and tactics. The companies can put their campaigns out there, but it is up to the consumers to engage with it.