The irony with social media is that it has affected most people in the exact opposite way. The general public has become less social than ever before. What everyone does nowadays is just looking at their phones all the time.

Social media has become the tool to compete, to portray your imperfect life in the most perfect manner. You want to post literally everything. Life has become a beautiful display of cosmetic products which are worst when used. It’s all about showing off on the internet because the world needs to know that you are the best. The norm is that you will be judged based on your Instagram profile instead of how you are in real. Well who has time to understand a person when social media can literally show the glossy life the person is leading, the last pub visited, last time they went for a run, the country/city ticket off their list, their milestones, the birthdays of their friends, the shopping they did, the TV show they are watching and you can literally watch the full movie they are seeing in the theaters right at this moment on their stories because if it’s not uploaded on insta than how will the world know they have watched a new movie or wait they themselves won’t believe that they have seen it because the whole time they were just busy capturing it to show it to the world.

Since it’s a massive competition now, You have to look flawless on social media. To capture that one exquisite picture which will be going online, you are ready to spend hours on a Diwali evening rather than enjoying moments with your friends and family because the world needs to know how you were looking. Social media can literally tell you who celebrates which festivals and where. So if you are not at home for a festival, you have to post #MissingFamily instead of actually connecting with your family and even if you are having a video call than everyone needs to look perfect and fake a smile because now a screenshot will go online. Editing is a must, you even change the shade of your arm to make it look whiter because everyone online is no less than a model.

You meet an old friend and all you do is click pics, talk about social media activities of your other friends and occasionally in between, check your new insta feed and WhatsApp messages.

The peer pressure is tremendous. This is the most dangerous thing because upon seeing the near-perfect life of everyone, the best office culture they have, the parties they enjoy every Friday, the coolest things they do on the weekends, the park they visited, the dog they liked, the sport they played, the wedding they attended and I cannot even start on the gym pictures but since everything is right there on your phone so your transition “from not getting at all affected” to “you also start posting the same shit just to show to world that yes you are also having fun” is very easy. Trust me, the things you do online due to peer pressure are higher than anything else, if your colleague is doing great things at work it’s okay but if your friend (Social Media Friend) is visiting a pub every weekend with the coolest people than you want that otherwise, you feel you are a looser.

People have created their own social media rulebook which needs to be followed otherwise you are considered outdated, boring, frustrated from life kinda person. Now is actually a high time to introduce a subject in school to teach the kids how to handle social media, How to handle the social media pressure, how it’s okay to not put everything online, how to have a life outside of it, especially how to talk to a person and have a real good conversation without checking your phone even for 15 minutes. But what about the people who are already educated? Well just learn it from your parents, they are the live example of how you can be happy even without social media.

Social media is good, in fact, it’s great but what it has become today, what it has done to people is simply dreadful. Blessed are the ones who are still not in this trap.

The biggest irony of all is that one is putting this post on social media.