All of us would agree that we need real contact with others. We seek sincere relationships, and we may not be able to find them because of the influence of the media. Why does it matter that this celebrity changed their hair, or that some dog loves his swimming pool? Does investing time in these things make us better people? Do these moments spent on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter help us know who we actually are? No, they cannot. So, how can we find truth if we only know how to live in a facade?

A lot of us don’t talk about it or acknowledge it, but we all forget that it’s almost impossible to be viewing post after post, and not be affected. We tend to follow people we admire, and when we are constantly getting “fed” their image every day, even if we are not a fan of who they are or what they do, we are naturally inclined to become more like them. We are dealing with standards we set for ourselves in an attempt to figure out who we are, partnered with that, we have mass media’s standards, or one can even look at it as “the standards set by your 500 followers and the 200 people you follow.”

When we look at the images on the internet, we believe that our subconscious mind sets us up for becoming ordinary and unoriginal.

How do we become a unique individual, when we all follow the same people? We’ve found that instagram and other forms of social media are places of “wants”: “I want her friends, I want his followers, I want their talent, I want her outfit, I want his idea,” to the extremity that this notion becomes “I want that life.” How can we be content in our own reality when we are pummelled by so many others? We truthfully do not think that this issue is our own fault. We do not think that we consciously choose to trail behind others. Our subconscious mind is the culprit. Take cacti for example. Someone may not have liked cacti prior to social media, yet the influence of recent media trends may lead them to buy a cactus. While it is okay and natural for opinions to change, we think that person’s desire to get a cactus came from an underlying recollection that someone they followed loved them. So is this truly our own, inventive desire to get a cactus? No, not at all.

We are not asking you, or anyone else to quit social media. There is still so much that is wonderful about it; what we are asking, is that we consider the fact that who we are is easily influenced by what we see online. Every time you follow someone, or you like something, or you watch a video, or read an article, there is a good chance that who you are will be shaped into something new once again. It is crucial that we understand the impact that we have on others, and the impact they have on us. So, ask yourself: “Is this who I want to be?”