I always thought, social media's influence was all about advertising products and showing others how great someone looks in underwear. The posts about "the perfect bodies" were not affecting me in a way that really changed how I saw myself.
That is why I did not think, that I had any problems regarding social media.
My whole life, I struggled with self-confidence and whenever a teacher asked me, why I was so silent in their class, I did not have an answer. The truth is, I always underestimated myself and I still do. In my head, there are thoughts that tell me "You should give up" or "Maybe others will be bothered when I say this or that".
But what does social media have to do with all this?
Social media consists of a lot of unhappy and self-conscious people who write hate comments under every post they see. I do not have any public pages but last month I realized the influence that hate comments have on my mindset / way of thinking.
E.g. someone said that the artist I like most, is not talented. I become defensive but I don't say anything back at them because I know they are not worth replying. That's good, right? Well, keep in mind that I always overthink and judge myself without any judgment from others.
I started to think about some comments and opinions I saw and asked myself, how many people I see in real life regularly, think the same thing about me or my friends? I know that most people would never say something like this in person.
This fear about judgement that will never come, is something I discovered through social media hate.
It's something that helped me realize that we should take our energy and time to focus on our own lives and not on trolls that find need to bring others down to feel better. Also, I want to show myself that there are miles between feedback/ discussions and judgment/hate.
Building confidence is something that will take time, maybe even my whole life. In 2022, I want to change some mindsets in certain situations and step out of my comfort zone more and more.
This is also the reason I signed up for Journaly. Interacting with others should not be something I fear, but something I can learn from.
I believe, that reflecting thoughts on this topic and other things that I am interested in, will help me grow and overcome this fear of judgment that will not come!
Hi Marlene,
Welcome to Journaly! ☺️
Vielen Dank :)
Nice post!
Even though I'm not here to correct your posts since you are probably better at writing than me, I really liked this one. It's really nice to know that more people are sharing similar views.
This is a subject which definitely I and I guess many others can easily relate to, since most of us nowadays live in many ways both in the digital and "true" reality. I'm pretty sure issues with social networks will get even more relevant in the upcoming years.
I'm not here to give you life advice, but for me personally, deactivating my facebook account made a huge difference. Even though it's have been only a couple of weeks I can notice already a really positive change in my mental well-being. I can only imagine where it will take me in the near future.
This is definitely something I can recommend.
Thank you so much for this comment, Gytis!
I agree with you, I think this will become a bigger issue because this digital world has been growing so fast over the last two decades. I also deactivated my twitter account a few weeks ago because I realized the negative impact it had on me. Another thing I am trying at the moment is to spend more time with my thoughts than I spend with social media.
It's great to see your thoughts on the topic! :)