(ThyBlackMan.com) Suicide is at an all-time high. There seems to be a greater need for outside validation. Self image is based on how others see us verses how we see ourselves. How are we to foster self-esteem in our children when they are being taught by society that they are loved based on how much other deem them valuable. Maybe we must consider how young our children find their way to social media and if even 13 is too young. Granted young people are vulnerable, but adults also fall prey to the need to be validated by social media.
It seems we don’t value the validation people we see every day, or the ones we wake up to every morning. How many of us wake up and immediately grab our phone to see how our posts are doing on
social media. Did we get more likes and hearts? Are people feeling what we are posting? Do they, in social media land, dig the way I look? This is a problem that gets worst with each passing day. We must consider the high that social media allows for too many of us.
The bottom line is many are addicted to this drug called social media. It is a form of interaction, true, but we still need to be able to engage in meaningful conversations without the phone. It is highly rude to go to dinner with someone you care about but can’t engage fully in the conversation because you are completely tuned in to Facebook, or Instagram. No one in your life is immune to the social media tests so you post everything and everyone online. If you aren’t getting enough likes, or hearts, from pictures of you and your boo will you question the relationship? In addition, some of you post knowing there is a person in particular whose heart or like you require. If he/her is not liking your post something went terribly wrong with your day.
This might seem trivial, but it becomes very real when social media interaction becomes the bar by which we measure self. It can have you feeling alone, unworthy, and like a failure to the point you question is life worth living. If you think it’s a joke look at the videos and pictures we see…everything from pleas for help mentally to a spouse’s personal business down to ones child’s private moments. Yes, the suggestion is log off, and allow yourself to reconnect with reality. Reconnect with live and the people that love you.
Taking time away from social media can give you the opportunity to work on self-worth and validation coming from you. Wake up to mediation and loving on the people around you…social media can wait. You are more than likes and hearts, and your world should consist of more than such. Though there are people on the sites social media can never replace the need for human interaction. Re-enter the world while you can. Social media can become a dark hole that eats up precious time whereby you could be truly living life verses just posting what appears to be life.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitter; http://twitter.com/MrzZeta.