One of the main things that define the current and future generations are cell phones.

As Gen Z has grown up using phones, they have also grown up trying to navigate the complicated world of social media, something their parents never had to think about when they were teenagers.

While I myself have found social media platforms to be a source of entertainment just like many
other teens, I also find them to be overwhelming and a lot of the time, harmful to my mental health.

When I have a free moment in my day, I automatically pull out my phone, and recently it’s started to feel like a mindless activity that quite literally never ends because of the bottomless feed. And in that feed is what appears to be everyone else living perfect lives. Feelings of jealousy and sadness creep up. But the worst part is that if I try to leave all that behind, I feel a sense of separation from my peers.

The truth is that even though we feel like we know people through their profiles and content, nobody really shows their true selves on social media or has a perfect life. We’re all chasing some
idea of perfection, of what we think people want to see. And when we see everyone else’s so-called perfect lives, we believe ours aren’t good enough. We feel isolated and not good enough. So do we get rid of social media altogether?

A few months ago, I decided to try this for a month and got mixed results. One positive of ridding my phone of social media platforms was that I was on my phone less in general.

Instead, I spent more time doing things I love, like spending time with my family. I also felt a sense of relief from that feeling of not being good enough. There were no more photos of people doing all sorts of things I might have wished I was doing.

But there were also things that were hard about not being on social media. I worried about what I was missing out on. Not being able to like my friend’s posts and see what everyone else is doing gave me a sense of paranoia that I was different from everyone or was out of place.

It’s so difficult to get rid of social media altogether because it’s our generation’s primary way of socializing. But the problems that come out of that are astronomical. The level of interpretation
alone in texts, on Snapchat, etc. makes the world of social media confusing and hurtful.

My generation has gained so much through phones. We have the ability to access any information we want at any given moment. But there are problems that come with phones that people should try to be more aware of.

It’s clear that social media is a difficult thing to eliminate from one’s life, but I think it’s important that we all take the step to reevaluate whether these platforms are really doing more good than bad, and consider making changes to become healthier, happier people.