On a typical afternoon scrolling down my timeline, I see pictures of my friends, a cute video of a dog, and a meme worthy of a chuckle; then suddenly the pleasant posts turn to Kardashian drama, someone from school sub–tweeting another person from school, and an argument over politics or some sort of social issue.    

Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest- they’re all forms of social media we use daily. Using these platforms to network and share can be positive, fun, and even be a smart tactic to promote oneself to companies and colleges. However, I find that more and more social media is being used for all the wrong reasons, and to be blunt, it just makes y’all look childish. 

Before anyone gets offended, this doesn’t apply to everyone who uses social media; I’m not the know-all of the Internet, these are just my observations and suggestions as an average scroller. Nonetheless, if anything in the following rant applies to you, and you are offended, if the shoe fits wear it. Also, be mindful of my reasoning behind annoyances- they might just provoke a positive change.  

Without further ado, here are the top three things that irritate me about social media: 

1) Finstas: LITERALLY STOP CRYING AND POSTING CRIMINALIZING INFORMATION. The amount of times I’ve seen a public “fake instagram” that shows the account’s underage owner smoking or drinking or crying about a breakup or some melodramatic issue is redundant and excessive. It’s even worse when the account is public instead of private; literally just post on your “rinsta” (real Instagram) as you obviously want people to see whatever you’re doing, unless that would disturb your perfect yellow-golden hour-warm toned-slightly saturated aesthetic. *insert eye roll and see item three for continued perfection rant* 

2) Twitter Beef: Instead of fearing adult confrontation that you’ll engage in for the rest of your life– stop hiding behind your boujee iPhone XR and get it together. I don’t want to see, hear, smell, or view your problems; to be honest, I don’t care. Sub-tweeting and sub-snapchat-storying is foul, irritating, and the second definition under the word idiotic in the dictionary. Stop. All of it. NEXT. 

3) Aesthetics and looking perfect: Now don’t get me wrong, I love me a good aesthetically pleasing feed; however, if you are only hanging out with your friends to pose the perfect Instagram pictures, you need to get a life. There is so much pressure to look perfect with all the societal garbage, the popularity of Facetune, being an Instagram “baddie,” and blah blah blah. It’s so overrated, and I really miss when posting pictures of your friends that were ACTUALLY candid and low quality was socially acceptable.  

I know my piece is dripping it sheer, unadulterated sarcasm and teen angst, but on a serious note, let’s stop using social media to perpetuate negativity. The world doesn’t need any more of it. I’m far from the say-all of social media or from a social media guru but, I feel if every social media user makes it an effort to post things that are positive, uplifting, enlightening, and genuine, the Internet would become a much more enjoyable place.  

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk, and remember, in the words of Mrs. Andreasen, “Be nice or leave.”