Vacations, dances, fancy meals, sports accomplishments, etc. did all of these really happen if you didn’t post about it on social media? Over the past few years the expectation and desire to post on social media has increased dramatically. Posts almost seem to be in competition with each other to see who has the best quality photos, the most clever captions and the most artistic feed. The image that they create for themselves can be someone completely different than their real-life personality.

Through the use of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat, people are able to show their followers exactly what they want them to see. . Instead of posting casually to keep peers updated like it was when social media apps first came out, now people post as more of a way to gloat and show off. Social media has seemed to become more of a competition rather than a place for people to post casually and keep their friends and family updated on their lives. Apps for Photoshop, photo editing and filtering have all become extremely popular downloads. A person can warp a picture into exactly what they envisioned with the use of these apps Instead of taking a picture and posting it with no extra thought or work, most modern teens take a photo, fix the lighting, edit it, filter it and spend too much time overthinking a simple caption. The trends are always changing, and social media users are constantly trying to keep up.

Annie Miner, a junior at Highland, is a very social student. Interacting with friends and family can’t always be done in person, which is why social media has a very beneficial side as well. Miner decided to give up her twitter app over a year ago because even though it does have its communication benefits, she figured she could be putting her time to better use.

“Everything I was reading was all negative,” Miner said. “It never benefitted me or helped me focus on positive things. It took up a lot of my time that I could have been using somewhere else.”

While social media may seem to be negatively taking over the majority of young teenager’s time, it does have its benefits. People are easily able to communicate and keep in touch with friends and family no matter how far away they are. The world is literally at one’s fingertips. Students are able to use social media as a way to study with their classmates as well with internet programs such as Canvas and Google Documents, and communicate with each other as well. Social media also gives many companies their business by promoting, sharing and surveying. It has become a resource used by people and businesses all around the world, and continues to grow as time goes on and new programs are invented.

Even though social media does have its perks as it continues to grow and prosper, these benefits come with a cost. Posting has almost become more of a bragging aspect rather than a casual update aspect. Users are constantly trying to keep up with the changing trends and spending more and more time on social media as new updates keep coming along. They lose track of time and can easily waste away hours without realizing how much time has gone by, and without thinking of other, more beneficial things they could be doing with that time.