Kyle+C’s+2017+OpEd+Article

=//We become real to ourselves by being seen by others, this is the quality that validates us... //=

~Photo by me~

If the purpose of social media was to connect ourselves to the rest of the world, then why does it often times limit our understanding of the person sitting right next to us? With the emergence of social media, people (specifically some of my best friends) started living their life online in order to escape from a reality that they can’t control. (Here is a very blatant yet true parody of how social media can affect us) media type="youtube" key="FmuEZYU-vxw" height="306" width="541" Although these people appear to be happy online to their thousands of followers who don’t know them personally, only those who see them every day actually know what’s happening behind the phone screen and behind that fake smile.

I have seen people neglect themselves mind and body to the point of (forced) hospitalization from eating disorder all so they can achieve that “perfect photo”. They somehow gain a sense of self from how many likes they receive and use this as a way to qualify their existence. As Sontag describes “the camera’s rendering of reality must always hide more than it discloses” and as someone who knows what is hidden from these photos, I agree with her. The magic of social media is that you truly can be whoever you want, given this, people are starting to formulate their lives around a “false” image and although they may be depressed and lonely in real life find some solace in the fact that everyone thinks they're happy, they somehow take the idea that if everyone believes in the lies they are displaying they will too.

Social media has provided people with the need to have their reality confirmed by other’s perception of themselves and through this, our own understanding of each other and the world we live in becomes diluted and limited...