Social Media and Self Worth
On social media, everyone exemplifies their lives as if they’re having the best moments ever, all the time, right? People show their most enduring times while disguising struggles, efforts, and the typical aspects of everyday life. There has been evidence that such images cause a disturbance for many people.
The blended burden of vulnerability, the constant need for assurance, and a desire to compare your life with peers, create a dangerous storm of self-doubt. While scrolling through social media you keep saying she’s so beautiful, his life is perfect, they’re couple-goals, I will never be that cool, that perfect body image, that luckiest guy, that successful person – making yourself feel like everyone has it together, except you!
Nowadays, social media and self-esteem have a powerful connection. As a parent, there are ways you can help your children understand that the number of social media followers, likes, and comments can never gauge their real worth.
- Let your child know that self-worth cannot be measured by numbers on social networking sites. Instead, encourage them to use it in the right ways. For example, a tool to connect a network with people, stay updated with news, or simply their opinions using a public platform.
- Remind your teenagers that this isn’t any competition. Just because their friends get more life on their posts doesn’t mean that they are managing their life pretty well or their contribution is bigger or more fascinating.
- Discuss with them how little is being shown on social media. Everyone posts only one tiny bit from their day. Nobody features the full picture. For fun, watch some videos about life on Instagram versus reality, and understand how different the two are!
- To protect your kids from comparing themselves with others, ask them to build a healthy relationship with themselves while blocking any kind of negativity from those who affect their self-worth or self-esteem.
Thus, it’s okay to fail. It’s absolutely normal to be dealing with things in personal life – others are doing so too. Always remember, photos are edited and what we glimpse on social media is just an apex from someone’s life.