My goal is to have 3000 followers in 4 weeks ! As a pre-teen this was always my mindset and won of the biggest goals that I wanted to accomplish. Then I realized that wasn’t a life. I no longer wanted to be somebody that I knew I wasn’t. I would always put on this fake front about everything. I even drove myself sick and crazy trying to have a body like Instagram models. Being too into social media can control your mind, damage your appearance/ how you view yourself, cyberbullying and depression, and my last thought is fear of missing out. 

Social media controlled my mind and made me think I had to live the life of the girls I saw on social media. I saw how many followers they had and how they acted to get them. They showed their body, posted money and nice things that they had got, and so much more. As a pre-teen I thought I had to do the same in order to be the next Kim Kardashian or Amber Rose. Then there comes the stage of not liking your body. You see these people and you really really want to be just like them. Now your appearance is damaged, and the way I looked at myself I wasn’t thick enough, my stomach wasn’t flat enough, and my hair wasn’t long enough, I just didn’t feel like enough. 

After finally feeling like I fit in a little bit and I build up the confidence to post pictures hoping I get lots of likes and new followers. Due to genetics I already knew I had a body and didn’t look like my age so me trying to be somebody else it didn’t help. I started to get lots of mean comments and dms. It wouldn’t stop. It was always that one troll and even became harassed by older men and I knew it was wrong but I saw others posting the same so I just looked at it as I hate and I thought I was the most famous person ever. I had finally got what I wanted and that was attention. I realized that it was the way for me to like myself and get attention from others. Even with all the bullying it still hurt and made me feel so bad deep down but that’s not what social media saw. 

Social media became a big part of my life and something I was always worried about. I couldn’t do anything without me wanting to take it to the internet. I feared missing out, I needed to keep up on all the new trends. My life became social media and I needed it to be a part of my life. I needed social media to tell me what to do, how to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, what to wear, when to wear it and so much more. Living my life through an app made me feel so mind controlled and I had no control over me trying to keep up with a life that wasn’t mind was miserable. I feared missing out on what I could do to make myself more famous. 

In all, I am telling all teens, even adults, to not let social media make you. Always be sure to be yourself and never do anything you don’t want to. Social media will literally ruin your life if you let it but don’t. It’s even to make you or break you and sometimes it will do both. It is not worth losing yourself over or even you and your family not recognizing who you are anymore. Love you for who you are, it is okay to be different and you do not always have to fit in.