by Staff writer
Let’s face it, this generation is extremely unhappy!
It’s because our definition of what constitutes success has changed.
Up until the age of social media, success was probably defined as being able to afford a decent living space, and raising a family with the right values.
Our happiness depended on the happiness of others. If my family was happy, I was happy.
I would be happy.
But that’s changed for young people now. Social media has made some people overnight celebrities. People have gotten very rich very quickly due to the sheer marketing power of the internet.
Each of us now think that if we just come up with that one perfect idea, one perfect video, one perfect formula, we too could be just as rich just as quickly.
So the focus of our happiness has changed from making sure the people around us are happy, to focusing on our individual successes.
And that is far more difficult because if we are honest with ourselves, we all know that we need others to make us feel fulfilled. Human nature works that way.
This would mean investing in relationships, which take time and effort and sacrifice. Time, effort and sacrifice we instead now expend on unfulfilling pursuits — such as marketing ourselves over the internet to people who couldn’t care less about us.
Endless Facebook posts, Instagram pictures and Snapchat videos and all the while, we are being brainwashed into constant consumerism.
But the real truth is that unless you’re Barack Obama or a celebrity on par with him, no one really cares that your latest Instagram would have looked better with a different filter.
Social media has turned the millennial generation into an intensely self-conscious group of smartphone-wielding youth.
Every update, photo or tweet is crafted with a keen sense of self-perception. Posting something on the Internet is never personal, no matter how strong your privacy settings might be.
Why would you publish something online if you didn’t want anyone to see it?
Social media has taken the concept of the other and pushed it into overdrive.
Before, the other helped us form social identities and groups we like to associate with in a very physical sense. Now, with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a slew of other networks, baseline metrics have been attached to the number of people who see a given online post in the form of friends, followers, or fans.
We’re all in a mosh pot of self-consciousness and doubt. That’s why you should never strain yourself too hard to get the best angle for a selfie—the bottom line is everyone’s just as concerned with their own image, one way or another, to notice how concerned you are with yours.
So you might as well go on with the sepia filter and stop stressing about it!
