My Message to the world about Social Media

Please note: statistics quoted with this piece have not been verified by AoC.

Everyone knows by now that social media is ‘’toxic’’ and ‘’fake’’ and not everything you see on there is always going to be ‘’real life’’. People who post on Social Media as their full time job. (Content Creators) and normal everyday people who do not do social media as a job Will most of the time only post the ‘’perfect things in life’’ if there's even such a thing as perfect.

Social Media is one of the most damaging things around in the world right now and you know what's scary? ANYONE can access it from any age. And it can be detrimental to a lot of young people's mental and physical health. Did you know that in the UK alone 4 in 50 young people will take their own life due to the effects of social media and trolling alone?. That is disgusting and it is a problem that needs to be resolved RIGHT NOW!!.

In my opinion it is important that the legal age for a young person to have social media is moved to no younger than 18. This will not only have a less negative effect on Young people's body image and feeling insecure because they dont look like the ‘’perfect models they see all over social media’’ but it will also give young people a chance to live in the real world and not in a world of toxicity that social media is.

Social media has got young people comparing their lives to unrealistic standards. I think that there should be regulations on social media to the degree that it negatively affects the public good. It is important to remember that your social media feed is your space, it's your virtual home. You need to make sure that it is made up of accounts that fill you with positive vibes and energy and ones that bring you strength and positivity. If anyone makes you feel inadequate for simply being your truest self then unfollow them, block them and close your virtual door on them. you do NOT have to let those people into your life, Virtual or otherwise.

I think that more and more people started to become aware that social media was starting to feel like a more and more toxic space. And quite a lot of incidents of people getting very, very angry about all kinds of things and more people were going out of their way to attack others because of something they have done or seen on Social Media.

It is important to remember how fake social media is and how it can fool you into believing things. For example you see someone on Instagram with 5 likes that have lots of friends and then there's people with over 1000 likes who are lonely, don't have many friends, there are couples that look happy but actually they are miserable, There are people in debt but they are living ‘’lavish lives’’.

One thing I need you to take away from this is that social media isn't real life. And remember that Appearances are just that… Appearances.