How Can We Keep Social Media Real?

By Kaitlin Croney

Much to your dismay, the ring of your morning phone alarm wakes you for your first class of the day. Maybe you hit snooze once, or if you’re like me, two or three times. By the time those ten minute snooze periods are over, you have no choice but to finally open your eyes if you want to make it to class. You roll over, you silence that agonizing beep, and unplug and unlock your phone, finding time that doesn’t really exist to conduct your morning scroll through social media (because, you know, just in case you missed something while you and everyone else you know was asleep). 

If you’re anything like me, the process might look a bit like this: you open Instagram to a photo of your favorite influencer in her latest destination, maybe a private beach in the Maldives or on a boat in the Bahamas. You (obviously) double tap because you could only ever dream of being that cool. You scroll. The next photo you see is of a public figure with perfectly curled hair in a white t-shirt that costs over a hundred dollars promoting some new gummy vitamins that promise they hold the power to achieving well-being. Then you finally get to a photo of someone you know, all smiles with their friends at school. Maybe you’re close, maybe you haven’t seen them in a few years. Either way…how much do you really know about them? 

While social media has been responsible for certain positive growth we’ve experienced as a society, we can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that its culture is largely unhealthy. So much of what we are exposed to each day from the very moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed at night are socially-constructed standards of ‘goals’ and ‘perfection'. What we (understandably) don’t sit and think about every time we are casually scrolling is how unrealistic these standards actually are. Yet, we idolize the photos and posts that we see as fulfillments of those standards. The impact that this can have on our mental health is inevitably great. This impact comes in addition to the personal challenges that we may face in our lives each day. 

This year, in the wake of this culture, my friend Dana Giles started a social media platform called I Want the Real, which produces content around mental health and taboo topics. Straight from the platform’s website, here’s what you should know:

“Giles started I Want the Real because she believes there is a huge flaw in society regarding how mental health is perceived. She saw her peers struggle with issues like addiction, eating disorders, depression, and anxiety, yet they felt too ashamed to share what was actually happening. She wanted to change this. Giles hopes the platform will make her followers feel like they don’t have to hide or feel ashamed for feeling emotions other than happy all the time and to empower them to cut the bullshit and get real about what’s actually going on.” (iwantthereal.com)

I Want the Real embodies a message that I stand so strongly behind. It has inspired me to tell my own story and has provided me an outlet to do so. This summer, I wrote “What a Picture Can Hide,” an article in which I talk about my own experiences with mental health and how deceptive and impactful social media can be to the individual person. Other I Want the Real articles have covered topics of depression, anxiety, addiction, loss, and trauma, to name a few. 

I don’t think anyone should be expected to completely remove themselves from popular culture. I don’t think that we should say that popular culture is all bad. But I don’t think that we can underestimate the impact of the content we choose to allow on our feeds either. Everyone has a story that exists behind closed doors. We only allow others to see what we want them to see, especially when it comes to social media. Even if you choose to keep your own story private, what could waking up to a story of hope and strength or going to sleep to a story that makes you feel a bit less alone do for your well-being? Just some food for thought.

Check out my article for I Want the Real here ☺ https://iwantthereal.com/2019/05/30/what-a-picture-can-hide/