Social Media Vs You

 

Why is social media depressing?

You open your Instagram and see a bunch of your friends & cousins doing random stuff. You see your friends getting 2nd dose of the vaccine but the CoWin app never even let you book your 1st slot. Another story shows your peers having a vacation in Goa or worse, abroad. You are stuck at home and the only place you can visit is the nearest medical shop. You shut down your Instagram and watch your screen go blank (for approximately 0.05 sec).

You open LinkedIn now, thinking you are smart. There you see many freshers getting their dream jobs. You realize you are 23 and graduate from a prestigious college and the only thing you've ever been placed in is a stereotype! Everyone is going to earn their "own money" now and you are going to sit on your father's couch eating Lays he bought for you while watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. on his TV. For a change you see someone getting into their dream college and you wonder will you ever enter your dream college? Sudden disappointment! Now you want to be serious. 'If I want to get into my dream college, I must study now,' you shout at yourself. You rush into your room and setup your study table and it looks phenomenal. You must snap it. Oh! There are so many snaps here already! Someone has sent you a photo of themselves after a HIT workout with caption "50 days shred". 50 days? Really? How can people be that consistent? You have doubts but you still assure yourself that you will also workout while rubbing your belly-fat (obviously from the chips you ate). 

You open another snap and it shows a random girl in her boyfriend's arm (this is her 4th "the one" this year btw) and you wonder how their parents never find out followed by how people even get into relationships that are not toxic? You remember all your exs or worse, you remember how you never got a partner. Now you are even sadder. You click a blank snap for the sake of streak. 

You no longer wish to study. Instead you want to stalk your ex and what can be a better place to do so than Facebook? There, you open the social media platform where it all started. You try to find him but no luck. He has probably blocked you. Now you scroll to relieve your pain. Your school-friend has started a start-up. You congratulate him while wondering how could this lame kid pull it off. You notice your cousin just learned French and all her posts are in French now. All uncles and aunties are praising her without realizing she is writing feministic posts which they otherwise wouldn't have approved. Satisfied with your further agony you finally close your sadness hunt.

Just as you lay in bed, your mobile screen flashes and the news reads, "India registered 3915 coronavirus deaths in last 24 hours". Your hand automatically reaches your heart and you check your heartbeat involuntarily just to realize that you are still alive, your family is safe and your home is still a home. You miss the aunt you lost to this pandemic for a moment. It all sinks in and you are calm now. You don't want what others have anymore. You have your breath and that is a huge deal these days. You bow in your mind to the almighty and become grateful for little things in your life, from the serene breath to the pumping heart. You are alive and there must be a reason greater than social media scrolling! You get up and go to the table you sat-up earlier and get back to your studies and work. You are alive for a reason, a purpose and you must work hard for that! Your phone beeps again but this time you put it on silent mode and get back to your REAL LIFE!