Does what I post on Social Media define me?

It really shouldn’t, but in all honesty, it does. Tremendously.

Every day I contemplate whether or not I should post something on one of my many social media accounts. It consumes so much of my thoughts because, while I try to be original and true to myself, social media always comes up and causes me to sink again and again into the thoughts of how my appearance on social media influences people’s thoughts about me as a person. Should I really care? I should be able to post something on social media that I am proud about, and not care about what people think of it. But it’s hard not to care about what people think when we are all so connected.

On a daily basis, I probably send more than a hundred snapchats, go on Instagram about ten times, and Twitter… well, that’s a crazy number that I don’t feel like admitting to myself or anyone else. And it is all without thinking about it. That is, until it comes to me actually posting something on my accounts – then I become hesitant. I’m hesitant because it is human nature to worry about what other people think about you. There is really no reason to care about how many likes I get on a picture, or how many people favorite my tweet, but it happens. I try to stay away from caring about what I post so much and just post what I want to. Sure, I probably overanalyze how much people really care about what I post because I am not one of those accounts that people check on a daily basis. But we are all trying to impress someone. You try to deny it but it’s true; we all try to prove our worth to our peers.

It’s okay to be hesitant about what you post on social media as long as you don’t live in fear of what others think of you at school or in public. Be who you want to be and share that on social media, because there’s no point hiding your true self from people (especially people from school, because after high school, it won’t matter). The people who judge you and make you self-conscious won’t be in your life forever, because after you graduate you can choose to see them or you can choose not to.

So I’m challenging myself to not care as much about what I post on any of my accounts, and try to be as much as myself as possible. I want to show everyone who I really am and try not to hide behind the social norms, because the people that I’m trying to “impress” won’t matter after I graduate and get to choose who I want to be around instead of seeing everyone every day. So, I’m going to start now. I’m going to truly be me and not care what others think.