*GUEST CONTRIBUTOR* Law and English student Isabel Mur
Nowadays social networks have a huge impact on our society, they have grown faster than we could have imagined. Instagram was created in 2010 and just a year later it had 5m users, but 5m users is nothing compared with the 150m users that Instagram reeled in by 2013.
Instagram is a good example of the strong impact that social networks have on our lives.
But social networks trick us the whole time. I would take the example of a couple that has become incredibly famous due to Instagram, their names are Jay Alvarez and Alexis Rein. A couple that travel the world taking photos of themselves in different places, mostly on beautiful beaches with cute puppies or exotic coconut drinks. They sell their lifestyle, a style that is not real and, of course, not affordable for the commoner. But they are not the only ones, there are many people that post daily pictures of their trips, dinners or parties, forcing you to feel, appreciate and desire their happiness.
Yesterday I saw a girl take almost 20 pictures of her beer and instantly post them on Instagram, she then focussed on her mobile and the 'likes,' instead of enjoying her beer in peace with us.
“I deleted all my social networks, now you can’t find snapchat or Instagram on my phone, I don’t use them because I don’t want to, it's not that I have punished myself, it is just that nothing seems real. I am 19, I don’t need to do that, I am not 15 anymore” my friend Yasmina told me. A girl that used to post two pictures on her Instagram every week
“I deleted lots of pictures on my Instagram profile, it wasn’t me, it was a better version of myself” my classmate Belen told me, “now it has been two weeks and I haven’t posted a picture or even seen snapchat.”
They are two perfect examples of what social networks do to our lives. Young people have started living their lives for social networks, forgetting their real lives.
It is not as apocalyptic as I tell it, but it is time to reflect on how we let social networks influence our lives, how much we care about them and the lies they tell.