Social Media | Model Behaviors

Let me start by saying I’m a big fan of social media!

If you follow me and see how much I post, you’ll know this about me. But this February I decided to take myself off Facebook.

The past couple months I noticed that every time I posted something showing my life as a makeup artist, I got hundreds of likes and comments saying my life looked so “unbelievable” and “glamorous,” but as soon as I posted something really meaningful—like signing a petition to end homelessness—I was barely getting any likes or comments at all. I don’t know if this was because no one cared or because Facebook’s algorithms didn’t show those posts to people. Maybe it was a combination of both.

Either way, that was the first thing that really upset me.

Then I started noticing how much time I was logged in, and I soon realized I was addicted! Addicted to seeing what everyone else was doing and addicted to seeing who liked my posts! I spent countless hours looking at my news feed.

But more than that, it started affecting me, making me feel depressed. I saw how everyone’s lives seemed so much more exciting than mine, and it made me feel lonely.

That raised a red flag. How can I have over 500 friends and feel so lonely? How is it that everyone seems to have such amazing lives and mine is so sad?

Alaysia is back this month to talk about social media, cyber bullying, and how to keep yourself safe. Please give her a warm MB welcome!

One night while scrolling through Instagram, I began to notice several messages from a friend. These messages weren’t for me, but I began to notice a pattern. Some were hard to read because I just couldn’t believe I was actually witnessing my own friend aggressively cyber bully a girl for her choice of religion. There were many back-and-forth comments as my friend continued to nag on this girl, claiming her choice of religion was all wrong and there was only one religion to follow without being sent to a horrible afterlife.

Later on, a boy I didn’t know began sticking up for the girl along with others, including myself. However, the boy began using profanity and threatening my friend for bullying the girl. Right before my eyes, I watched this situation grow and grow into a battle, both my friend and this boy were publicly humiliating one another.

I finally decided to step in and stop it. I privately sent a message to my friend saying he was better than that and that we all have a free choice of religion. I urged him to understand there are differences out there and that everyone has a right to believe in whatever they want to believe in.