A Letter to My Online Self

Dear @vanessa03021,

This is you, writing from the real world. I think it’s about time that you get a reality check. I’ve been noticing you staring at your phone a whole lot and I’ve become quite concerned. You gotta live your life more! Stop living it through your phone screen, you’ll miss things. And why are you taking so many pictures of your food? Just eat it already…

Anyways, what’s up with all this worry on how many likes or followers you have? When have you ever cared about these things? Marketers call them social media metrics and they help them figure out how well a campaign or brand is performing online. Are you a product that needs to be sold to the public? No, your not. Your posts have nothing to do with how much money you will make, so why let these metrics affect you?

I get it that social media pressures us to be a more glamorous version of ourselves. But how is that affecting us personally? I find that your self-worth has taken a huge hit lately. The posts you share on Instagram take you days to decide when to post because your too worried a wrong time will give you fewer likes. You think that if you get less likes, you feel rejected and neglected. You should NOT be feeling this way.

Just because your social media metrics aren’t doing the best, doesn’t mean that you have to let it affect you in the real world. All the metrics you are paying attention to are just vanity metrics — data that make us feel good when they go up but doesn’t help us take action or make a change. But for some reason, these vanity metrics get to you.

You don’t even know most of your followers on Instagram, how do you expect them to engage in all your posts? These online relationships are pointless; you basically know everything about all your followers but have never even met them… And when you do, you find out that they are nothing like they seem on their feeds. Huffpost agree that 80% of people feel that they are being deceived by others through social media. Why are we pretending to be someone we’re not?

I also read that 60% of people state that social media has a negative impact on their self-esteem. For teenagers going through mental health problems, social media have magnified these obstacles. Depression, anxiety, bullying, FOMO (the fear of missing out), and lack of social skills are just some issues that teens experience daily because of social media. I am worried that this is happening to you. I think your interpretation of value has been distorted throughout the years.

So @vanessa03021, what IS your definition of value? No one really knows. Many people see value as whatever the society portrays beauty and perfection as. All the ads and marketing campaigns make up an unrealistic image of value that we as a society strive to match. But in reality, those ideas are unattainable and just cause us more stress and anxiety over ourselves.

For me, I think value means the appreciation and love I have for myself and others. Despite all the likes, followers, and views I gain or lose, they shouldn’t affect my overall self-value. So, as a way to change things up, here are some things to do:

1. Go on a social media cleanse→ pick a day of the week to stay off all social media platforms; it will be a nice break

2. Stop worrying about what you post and just do you→ post whatever you want, whenever you feel like it; who cares about “bad” timing

3. Change your mindset→ instead of wanting to be like others, get inspired by them and take only what applies to you

4. Start limiting how many people you follow→ filter out your impersonal contacts so you can focus on your personal relationships

I know these steps are gonna be hard to achieve, but knowing and having these thoughts behind your brain will help you figure out what your value and self-worth means to you. With social media blinding your perception, you may not have noticed how different you have become. I can see it, can you?

Sincerely,

Your real life self.

#Instagram #SocialMedia #Metrics #Analytics #MentalHealth #Lifestyle