Self Love in the Age of Social Media

Nowadays, it’s become second nature to open a social media app and scroll past a series of flawless people, places, and things. It’s a seemingly never-ending feed of perfectly curated images that communicates an unspoken expectation: if you want to share your life, you better make sure it’s only the best parts. Having this kind of pressure shoved down our throats 24/7 can really do a number on our mental health—I’ve found myself down a rabbit hole of jealousy and self-deprecation too many times to count. The grass is always greener on the other side, we’ve been told. But the real question—and the one I believe we should be focusing on—is how do we learn to just be content in our own field?

Something unique in our day and age is the influx of available information. There has never been an easier way to create, share, and repost. While this can be a great thing (bringing lots of attention to important social and political movements), there is also a flip side where I feel like it’s almost impossible to escape the black hole that is the internet. That’s why I think the most important step to cultivate self-love in the age of social media is to take a step back. When we are forced to see other people living out their best lives, we may also feel the same need to push out very similar content. This vicious cycle can only be broken if we learn to leave our status sharing behind. I promise it will be hard: we’re conditioned to stay in the loop, to always know the who, what, when and where. But once you make it a habit to turn off your accounts and take a break for even just an hour each day, you will feel the conscious effort pay off—maybe not immediately (in fact it will probably feel like you’re missing an essential part of your day), but definitely in the long run. 

When I removed myself from the toxic environment of social media, my focal point shifted from lavishing attention on others to focusing solely on my own characteristics. I realized that there were so many things that I needed to work on, but also so many things I could appreciate about myself now that I wasn’t surrounded by endless comparisons on the internet. It has truly helped me develop my self-worth and reorient my perspective in life.

Nowadays, I open social media and scroll past the same series of flawless people, places, and things. It’s still an uphill battle sometimes to make sure I don’t fall down the same rabbit hole that I used to. But time and effort have served me well—my intrinsic desire to improve and grow overshadows any need to compare with others, anchoring me in my self-love in the age of social media.