the game we call social media: Sarah Preston

Hey there! I’m Sarah and I’m currently a sophomore at Miami University. I am majoring in psychology and minoring in creative writing and I have the special privilege of calling Alpha Xi Delta my home away from home. These girls have become my closest friends and my tight knit family and I’m so proud to be one of their sisters. 

To begin, I’d like to share a little bit about my past. When I was a child, I wasn’t allowed to have a phone, I wasn’t allowed to watch certain tv shows, and overall I wasn’t allowed to do things I saw other kids doing. I felt a sort of isolation from other kids my age. However, one day, I was allowed to get a phone, but despite being over the moon excited, I noticed I couldn’t have social media like all of my friends did. So while they were sending each other funny Instagram posts, I was playing Flappy Bird until the bell at school rang. At the time, this felt like a highly exclusive activity, and my lack of social media meant I had no way of communicating with my friends. 

Freshman year of high school rolled around and my parents finally let me get Instagram. Again, I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to be part of the “trend”. I was able to keep track of my friends, comment on their posts, and overall feel like a part of my group again. However, as time went on, I started noticing how I felt when I closed the app. I would see pictures of my friends who were hanging out without me, or finding images of really skinny models who I knew I didn’t look like. I would shut down the app and sit in sadness for a few seconds, without even realizing why. 

This feeling is the danger that social media presents today. While it can be fun and exciting to hype your friends up, it can also be damaging to someone’s mental health. I’m here to tell you that not everything on the internet is as it seems. Turns out, that picture of my friends hanging out together was actually an image of them from months before it was posted. The photograph of the model was highly edited as a marketing strategy. 

Social media is a game that everyone tends to play, but we as a society need to normalize being honest with each other. When we post, we must think about the consequences and those who are outside of our bubble we might be impacting. Along with that, when we enter into these social media apps, we must have the expectation that nobody is perfect, and if someone claims they are, it’s most likely an illusion. 

So today, tomorrow, and all the days to come in the future, I challenge you to escape the addiction of social media. Put down your phone for a few minutes a day and talk to friends face to face. Use a critical eye when looking at Instagram and TikTok posts and ask yourself, is this real or am I being played? In the end, all that matters is that you are happy with who you are. In Alpha Xi Delta, we have five certain qualities we all strive for, one of which is authenticity. So even if you do post to social media, be as truthful as you can. Be genuine, raw and kind. When you do, I promise you will start to feel the effects of honesty over the wears and tears that can be exposed through social media.