Liquids and Likes

Being on Instagram and Snapchat is normal for college students. Typically people post a lot about their life like their clothes, jewelry, new hairstyles, their views and more. A trend that we all see is people posting a lot about alcohol. I was interested to search for – what is the reason to constantly post about alcohol? Is it harmful or harmless to be posting while under the influence and why do people do it so often? I am looking at it through the social comparison lens.

Social Comparison theory is the process of someone viewing characteristics of someone else- their looks, personality, influence, attitude, income, and/ or thoughts in contrast to their own.  Whenever one is doing something, they constantly think of how someone will view it, do it, or respond to it.  It’s the idea that everything you are doing,  you compare to something someone else is doing or has done.  Social comparison is about finding acceptance and feeling self-satisfaction along with the approval of others.

Bad Lighting

When researching about the effects of posting about alcohol and party culture, it claims that people had a positive response from their peers. It is typically for alcohol to be present in social media because it gives people a sense of approval from their peers. If a freshman sees a senior posting about parties, out drinking and other illegal activities, they are more likely to partake because they think it will make them seem more mature. Social comparison is dangerous in that aspect because obviously you do not need to drink or do drugs to be cool. When comparing yourself to someone else, you think of how they are perceived, the reputation they have or how they think of you. If they have a good reputation, they are other variables that go into that. Basically, people only post about alcohol for the reaction or a positive response from someone else.

Be Inspired – Don’t Become

If you see someone balancing a good work and social life it could be beneficial to compare their choices to yours. For example, if you do see someone partying a lot and yet they are not reaching their goals, is that what you want to compare yourself to or strive to? No. You can compare you journey to someone else’s without having to copy in. It is good to observe and take notes on how you want to live your life, what characteristics you want to portray about yourself and what you want the world to see on social media. When interviewing multiple students and asking them why they posted certain pictures of them out compared to other pictures there was different answers. One student said that he likes to post the pictures of himself when he’s out because he think that when he tries to look his best so he gets the best pictures of himself. Another student said she posts about alcohol because she thinks it makes her more relatable because a majority of the people she follows does the same. Lastly, one student said he does not post about alcohol because he thinks it looks bad to employers. All of the professionals he follows do not share pictures of themselves drinking or partying. I think all of the student haven an interesting insight. Studies show that posting about alcohol has a positive effect. People tend to understand that it is apart of a young persons life so it is okay to post. People tend to perceive those who post about partying and drinking to be more social, which is typically a good thing. Do not compare your socials to someone else, because if you think it deserves to be there then you are expressing your social side.

bibliography

Argo, J., White, K., Dahl, D., & Dawn Iacobucci served as editor and Laura Peracchio served as 

associate editor for this article. (2006). Social Comparison Theory and Deception in the 

33(1), 99-108. doi:10.1086/504140

Barrientos-Gutierrez, T., Gimeno, D., Mangione, T., Harrist, R., & Amick, B. (2007). Drinking 

Social Norms and Drinking Behaviours: A Multilevel Analysis of 137 Workgroups in 16 Worksites. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 64(9), 602-608. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/27732994

Galbicsek, C. (2019, July 24). College Alcoholism and Binge Drinking. Retrieved March 5, 

2020, from http://www.alcoholrehabguide.org/resources/college-alcohol-abuse/

Hendriks, H., Van den Putte, B., Gebhardt, W. A., & Moreno, M. A. (2018, June 22). Social Drinking on Social Media: Content Analysis of the Social Aspects of Alcohol-Related Posts on Facebook and Instagram. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6035352/

Roberson, A. A., McKinney, C., Walker, C., & Coleman, A. (2018). Peer, social media, and 

alcohol marketing influences on college student drinking. Journal of American College 

Health, 66(5), 369.

Thompson, C. M., & Romo, L. K. (2016). College Students’ Drinking and Posting About Alcohol: Forwarding a Model of Motivations, Behaviors, and Consequences. Journal of Health Communication, 21(6), 688–695. https://doi-org.ezproxyemc.flo.org/10.1080/10810730.2016.1153763

Internship Deliverable

At MGR Strategic Communications, one of the jobs I had was to call major companies and speak with their marketing department about an editorial opportunity. The goal was to get the marketing head to discuss with our editor the chance for one of our publicists to write a free article about their company as an industry leader. This is free marketing for them and it benefits the MGR writers to stay on top of industry trends. During my week, I was expected to make about 150 calls. Getting to the director of marketing was typically a challenge- and convincing them to do the meeting was an even bigger struggle, but not impossible! During my time I set up 12 meetings and 11 out of the 12 occurred. Because I was able to secure 11 meetings, I was also compensated for my achievement. Below is the list of companies that I secured.

  • Ultra Tool & Mfg Inc.
  • W Meyer William and Sons Inc.
  • World Water Works Inc.
  • Tilcon New York Inc
  • Prentke Romich Company
  • Orafol Americas Inc
  • Roechling Medical Lancaster LLC
  • Schunk Intec Inc
  • Sebright Products
  • The Perfectly Green Corp
  • Cleaning Technologies Group

Living My ~Stressed~ Life

As finals have quickly approached, we all know how difficult it is to be focused. I am constantly trying to use every moment I can to study but somehow always find myself back to scrolling on my phone. I found that this constantly added to my stress because I would let 10-15 minutes pass by! I couldn’t let that happen anymore. I started to think about the additional plus sides of this, no more spoilers of the Avengers and game of thrones but getting in a good head space for finals was the motivation I needed. I have not been on social media since Sunday, April 28th and will be off of it until May 6th. Let’s see how it went….

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From the Dinner Table

After deleting Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook off of my phone, it has been so nice to not be worried what I am missing on social media. In Remedies for the Distracted Mind, getting rid of accessibility is the second step. I had noticed that I was always prepared to have a conversation. In Turkle’s book, Reclaiming Conversation, she states- “conversation explores the meanings of the relationships that animate our lives. It attends to pauses, hesitations associations, the things that are said through silence” (Turkle 8). It was interesting how once I was fully engaging in conversation how whoever I was with would typically commit themselves too.

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When going out to dinner with my friend, the normal phone filled silences were filled with us people watching and commenting on the pretend lives we would give them. When watching a Netflix movie, I was able to fully understand the plot and didn’t miss a beat. And thankfully, when studying for finals, I was fully committed to studying which had my friends committed as well. I had noticed once I told people I would not be looking at my social media/ taking phone breaks, they would hold me accountable for it and also be aware of themselves doing it.

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I Missed You, Did You Miss Me?

Of course, being a young adult in this generation I missed social media a little. Typically, in larger groups people would constantly talk things they saw on social media, most likely because it’s the easiest way to engage a whole group. One thing I have learned for sure is that I do not need social media and I think that is very eye opening. For any major news I could have gotten from social media, I had heard about from a friend or read in pop culture section in the news. The one thing I know I’m missing out in is getting all the memes sent to me that my family and friends later joked about. According the Pew Research Center, I’m not the only one! Studies show that teens (and young adults like me) are more likely to use social media as a way to interact with family and friends. If I am to go back, it will most likely to be kept in the loop about current jokes.

https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/

Signing off for good?

Although it has only been a short week and easy to forget about social media because of how stressed I was for finals, I think I’m going to continue my social media cleanse. As I mentioned I only deleted Facebook, Instagram and Twitter which were my three go to’s when I needed a distraction or when I was bored. I would get way too much FOMO if I deleted Snapchat since I have a large family group snap. I found that the cleanse was definitely good for me. As discussed in Remedies of the mind, I did have less boredom because the silence of social media was filled with real conversations with peers, family, and friends. My anxiety was lower than normal because I knew I was not wasting time scrolling through my phone. Even if I got FOMO which is associated with anxiety from social media, it was a quick fix from someone either showing me what I’m missing and starting a conversation with me OR I reminded myself it clearly does not effect me if I see whats happening or not. I think my relationship with social media is going to decline as I get older and I’m okay with that. I would rather have more fruitful relationships with the people around me- and for that reason I am signing off!

AI or ET- Which Will Take Over the World First?

World domination was embedded in our developing brains growing as an actual threat to mankind. But no, it will not be Dr. Doofenshmirtz or Extraterrestrials- it’s something that resides right in our home. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not new to our generation. We see it on a day to day basis and have developed a real relationship with it. (Not that kind of relationship but let’s be real, Karen and Plankton were #relationshipgoals). This is an ever-changing idea, that will only get more impressive as time goes on.

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Hey Siri, Introduce the Next Paragraph

Our iPhones, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home are all examples of Artificial Intelligence that most people have or have used to help them complete a task. The tasks could simple, for example “Hey siri, call Mom” or “Alexa, play Despacito” and on their own they are able to do this task by using an algorithm of sorts to go through your phone or amazon account in order to complete task hands free. Artificial intelligence is initially supposed to make our lives easier and maybe for now it does, but will it always be that way?

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Alexa, play I Knew You Were Trouble

The problem with technology having a mind of its own is it does not always have to do only what it is told- especially in its developing stages. Over the years we have heard multiple cases of Alexa listening in to people’s conversations. By listening to these conversation, she was then storing data and could have it possibly sent out. This was brought to my attention in recent article by Jason Voiovich, where he tells us how Alexa “Your Alexa-enabled device sends those recordings to an Amazon data center, where they not only use natural language processing algorithms to decode your speech and complete your request, but they also store those files in a centralized database for future use”. HOW SCARY IS THAT?

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Of course Alexa isn’t the only villain. For years people have been saying that they think their iPhone is listening to them. Have you ever been talking about something and then later that day you see an ad for it on Facebook? If Alexa is always listening, who’s to say Siri and Google aren’t either? These products keep showing up. In the near future, everything will be hands free and listening to us. SO far we even have hands free cars, These devices with accumulate all information they need to know in order to control us. In a blog post about AI, writer Adam Mertz stresses the idea that with all of the information that these devices are soaking in, they will be able to know our languages and behaviors and be able to market new products and ideas to us. By knowing exactly how to market to us they can manipulate us to think we need it. This will control our buying habits and could control how we perceive certain new and information.

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Hey Google, Wrap It Up

Is world domination something to worry about now? No! Is it more realistic more than ever? Sure! It is great to make life a little easier for humans by only having to command someone, or something to do a task for you. However, I think it’s important to dig deeper into the ways on artificial intelligence so that things like Amazon’s Alexa or Siri do not record and withhold almost all of your private conversations. Hopefully, they can find a way to control that and have the voice controls be more helpful than harmful in the future.

When Your Social Media Analytics are a Mess

For a few years now I have been in charge of Instagram account for my local pizza shop Stachey’s Olde- Time Pizzeria. Truthfully, I was only in charge of it because I was always taking pictures of my beautiful pies and my boss told me I could create an account to showcase them. Little did I know that this was a form of social media marketing! Once I went to college and did not have pictures new pictures, I started to slack and I could tell by the impressions. My boss had told me that a lot of people have stopped in because they had seen the instagram pictures which caused them to crave our food. I know that because of this I need to make my social media game stronger and this is how I plan to do it:

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Measuring My Media

Because I was at school 40 minutes away from work, I had people constantly sending me pictures and I would try to create captions / stories. That has not worked out as well as I wanted. According to Lipschultz, some ways to measure your media is by the amount of impressions you get, followers you have, likes or favorites, or mainstream media mentions. With gaining popularity, it builds a relationship with existing customers and/ or potential customers. Instead of being content with the number I have, I need to strive for more. Blogger Larry King says, that a creative way to get more followers is to follow in massively popular conversations. I have tried this before and have received a lot of great feedback. When the Patriots won the AFC championship, I had photo shopped a picture of Tom Brady with one of our pizza slices. This had received a lot of engagements which I could measure as a success.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs4brXGFoB8/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Steal a Pizza Their Heart

As we’ve seen other companies do, I must create a new item that will cause buzz worthy attention. Starbucks added a unicorn drink that sparked attention by asking people to post a picture of them drinking it on instagram and adding the hashtag #unicornfrappuccino. This was successful because it help raise brand awareness and help their followers raise significantly. This sparked an idea for me to raise awareness for a new food item. One of the most requested pizzas is a Margerhita pizza. Our boss had recently added it to the menu so I created a post and ask them to share pictures with their pizza using the hashtag #MyMargerhita. So far the engagements are higher and I have received DM’s that people are so excited to go try the pizza and post the picture. We are up 10% on website clicks and have gained 7 followers since. (That’s a decent amount for a small local business instagram). With more insight on what my followers want to see, I predict I get more engagements through these tactics.

Archive for Later

Through my research for this blog I have learned I need to get my engagements up. I took the Neil Patel test that told me not only does my instagram need work but also my google site. Going forward with this, I am going to need to look closer at insights and keep up with posting relevant and interactive content in order to gain a relationship with my followers. I have learned that analytics are very important because they help a company strive for their basic business goals by collecting, analyzing, and presenting data. I have also been consulting with a social media manager that will help me get on track with my analytics and teach me how to take the knowledge I have learned and be able to express it in future content. Hopefully, another post to come about my success!

Feel Free to Follow me on Instagram, @stacheys_pizza

Yeah, You’re Funny- but Does That Matter?

Think of the funniest tweet you have seen lately. Who was it by? The funniest tweet I have read recently was by @PopTartsUS. Why did this catch my eye? Because it was funny and I thought it was smart of them to recognize and use a recent joke of people saying PopTarts are ravioli’s, in order to make a pop culture joke others would understand too.

https://twitter.com/poptartsus?lang=en

Although Twitter is not seen as the prime social media marketing app (U.S Small Business Social Media Marketing Survey, 2017), it has a way of captivating an audience. Twitter is the dark, negative, anxiety teen and Instagram is the positive vibes, always happy, friend of everyone type of teenager. Humor and wit can bring consumers into a “Friend- of -Mind awareness”, this will make them give you more of their attention and loyalty. With this loyalty and attention, consumers will be looking for those tweets. With more brand recognition, makes more people want to buy PopTarts. According to the HooteSuite Twitter marketing strategy, PopTarts and other company’s -like Wendy’s and Denny’s- keep a unique presence on social media by keeping the humor heavy and always reacting to what their haters are saying.

Can you be a King without a Kingdom?

In the Forbes article, “How Denny’s (Yes, Denny’s) Became The King Of Twitter” it explains how Denny’s has used its twitter to rise above being a sketchy diner that you see once in a while, to a name you see all over your feed. With their following of only 593K, Denny’s marketing strategies have not helped them gain the typical loyalty they would want but instead, people see the tweets by those who are inclined enough to retweet. Has having a social media presence really helped Denny’s become the royal heir it is on social media? No, of course not, however, Denny’s sales have been slightly rising ever since the company had taken on an agency team to conduct their social media presence. It seems as though being just funny and lacking quality in the true product does not get you far.

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Better Try Facebook

As you can see, being on twitter helps these company’s get brand recognition, but not exactly more sales. Twitter seems to be a great place to display your ads but if you want success in terms of marketing, Facebook or Instagram seem like a better way to go. There is more structure, more age diversity and more ways to get to your target market and sell what you are trying to sell rather than make an impression. I believe that Twitter is a good start but in order to increase sales and have a true marketing strategies, another platform should be that choice.

The Truth to Being a Social Media Marketer

For this generation especially, being a social media marketer sounds pretty easy. We all know how to use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and anything else the social networking world throws at us. Sorry to tell you the truth, it is not that easy. For 5 and 1/2 years I have worked at the same pizza shop in my hometown, Stachey’s Pizzeria and for about 3 years now I have run the Instagram account @stacheys_pizza. The pizzeria is highly successful at doing things for the community however, every company needs a social media marketing in order to stay relevant.

What Even is a Social Media Marketer?

Some people confuse being a social media marketer with being an influencer. An influencer is someone who already has a following or lifestyles account and they are paid to sponsor brands. A social media marketer is a form of public relations (PR). Companies pay someone experienced in the social networking (with some sort of communications or marketing background) to promote their brand, idea, company, or organization to either get exposure or more customers.

Posting Content, Not Just Pictures

Who knew that Instagram, a picture sharing website, is not really about sharing pictures. Sharing content is about things you create to up the quality of your social media sites in order to get earned exposure. “Earned exposure is defined as when customers ‘Relay their positive experiences” to others ‘via social media sites for reviews and ratings’ (Tuten, 2008, p.121)” ( If you have quality content, you are appealing to more people, not only by aesthetic but also gaining trust with your readers. This isn’t only done with pictures and videos on Instagram, but as well as on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. According to Jeremy Lipschultz, advertising your company/ brand through social media helps them find what they need, learn through engagement, validate information that they have already heard, and they could advocate for after purchase (Lipschultz, 2015, p. 93).

You Need a Plan

One thing that people do not tell you is how demanding it is to push out content and constantly post to your business accounts. A great way to ensure you are posting quality content is to have a Social Media Marketing Plan. You want to make sure that you have a plan in order to ensure that you are being consistent and appealing to your target market. HooteSuite, a social media marketing site, put out an 8 step plan to achieve your social media marketing goals.

Step 1 is to set social media goals that align to your business. This could be difficult if you are not sure exactly what is it is that your company wants to get out of this. An easy start is to create awareness of what your company offers and then think if there is anything you can promote. One way to get followers is to create an incentive to follow by starting competitions or even following sprees. Step 2 is to learn everything you can about your audience. What I did for this step is looked at the demographics of my hometown and of our customers already. With this knowledge, I noticed there are a lot of surrounding businesses that come in for lunch and that there are a lot of orders from Merrimack College which is located just 3 miles from the store. I decided to market the fact that Stachey’s is quick and convenient for those on their lunch break yet, we have large portions at a low price for those college students looking to get a bang for their buck. Step 3 is to research the competition. It’s important to understand how they are marketing so you can make yours stand out. Step 4 is to conduct a social media audit, this will help you make sure you are on the right track!

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Step 5 is to create an account or improve your existing account. Before I worked at Stachey’s, they had already made a few accounts but definitely needed some work. I was able to gain access and find out what was needed to get more activity. Step 6, find inspiration. This one is probably the most underrated step because you can find inspiration anywhere for any company. The prime step, Step 7, is to create a calendar. This will help you be consistent and stay on task with how much you post. Step 8 is to test, evaluate and adjust your plan to ensure that you are successful in this process.

Don’t Be Afraid

As hard as it seems to be a social media marketer, people also don’t know how fun it can be to get a different perspective of social media itself. It is nice to log on and not have to worry about the typical negative effects of social media like body shaming or FOMO but instead to just interact with the followers and talk about a company or brand you (hopefully) really like! As much as I am inconsistent with my posting on the Stachey’s social media account, it nice to see people tagging us in the food they ate, messaging us about how great their order is, and all around being able to engage with our customers rather than in the store or on a customer service call. If you are someone who loves being on social media and are super creative with your content, I highly suggest this field for you!

Make Your Brain #StrongnotSkinny

I am the first to admit I get all of my motivation to work out through social media. Whether its doing exercises I find on the explore page, to seeing my favorite influencers doing spin classes or a super fit girl that I aspire to look like- social media has me sold. So, I go to the gym and I follow all these exercises but for what? To look like a girl that has paid for her butt to be that nice or do an exercise that probably only works when actually do it every single day? Social media has conditioned me to think that just because hundreds of girls look a certain way, that I should, too.

You Look Good, You Feel Good

A common saying/mantra that has recently had a larger impact on me than I ever thought it would. It is all about your mindset. Going through social media can be very harmful in a way by twisting your mind to believe you have to look like all the “fitness motivation girls” you see on Instagram or accounts promoting things like skinny teas and protein shakes which use a bunch of skinny girls that have probably never used their product.

By constantly seeing these advertisements on social media and see how “flawless these ladies are, we start associating those brands with looking like these particular models which get consumers to buy their products. Most Instagram users do not think about the outside effects that have led to looking like this. A lot of the time it is photoshop but a few notable attributes are genetics, diet, and exercise! With diet and exercise, you’ll not only look healthy but feel great.

Zero is Not a Size

A lot of body image issue growing up have been from wanting to be thinner like supermodels or super lean like fitness gurus. Companies have caught insight of the trends on social media and have become part of the problem by making it impossible to buy clothes accurate to your actual size. “Research has underscored that the relationship between the human body and clothing is complicated and often ambiguous.  Some claim that market plus sizes have not been well received. In the UK, the ‘size zero label’ has had mixed reception among consumers. Whilst some have welcomed its’ introduction with dismay, others have embraced it as being the status quo.” A majority of the girls who think they are “fat” are more likely to be an average weight and those who think they are “skinny” are more likely to be underweight. According to a study done by Grace Holland, “Women who post fitspiration images scored significantly higher on drive for thinness, bulimia, drive for muscularity, and compulsive exercise. Almost a fifth (17.5%) of these women were at risk for diagnosis of a clinical eating disorder.” Social media has made us want to be this way? Disgusting.

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Happy AND Healthy

It’s time to step back from fitness gurus and Instagram models that do not make you happy and feel great about yourself. Instead of following those who make you insecure about yourself, take the time to find someone that inspires you! My favorite fitness instagram is @kayla_itsines. She is very motivational and posts about peoples progress in all shapes and sizes. Kayla has an app called Sweat by Kayla which helps people in different areas of gym expertise. Her posts are genuine and helpful to those who are quite sure where to get started in the gym. She posts about her everyday life and struggles which as well makes me feel better about myself that she has days she doesn’t want to work out either. I challenge you to find a fitness guru that makes you feel happy and motivate you in a positive way as well!

When Social Media Ends Up Being Your Dinner Date.

Usually, when I go out to dinner, I like to be with someone whose company I enjoy and sometimes, my social media ends up being my dinner date. I’m sure this has happened to most people when they are out to dinner and their friends or family is constantly checking their social media throughout the evening which makes me more inclined to check mine. What could I possibly be missing out on Instagram that makes it so important for them to check rather than listening to my awesome story?

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Read My Face, Not Your Phone

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes social media brings up good conversation starters like, “Did you see what Kylie Jenner did for Stormi’s birthday?” or “Oh my gosh, I’m seeing wearing these new jeans where can I get them?!” -but that does not help you get to know or understand the person. Social media makes it so difficult to have genuine social interaction. Most people get a glimpse of your life on social media whether it be a post on Facebook or a picture on Instagram and they think your life is great. People are less genuine and are less likely to reach out and have a face to face conversations. According to the Pew Research Center, “a majority of teens (57%) say they spend about the right amount of time with their friends face-to-face. But roughly one-third of teens (36%) think they have too little face-to-face time with their friends.”

I Know You as a Profile, Not a Person

During the dinner date with social media, I find I am getting to know some people so well! (Besides the person across from me, of course). Brittany is getting married, Bob just had his first child, Mackenzie just got a new promotion! Good for them… Have you ever noticed how we only see the big accomplishments on Instagram and Facebook? People start to become insecure about what they see. At the age of 21 am I supposed to be getting a big girl job and getting engaged as I graduate or am I supposed to be eating Annie’s mac and cheese because that’s all I can motivate myself to cook? As Shankar Vedantam said, “Studies show that people who spend more time on social media sites feel more socially isolated than those who don’t. This might be because of a disconnect between our online lives and our real ones.” Brittany may only be able to cook mac and cheese too but she’s not going to post that, she’s going to post her perfect picture-worthy moments just as everyone else does. We commonly find that we only know people for these specific moments in their life that they chose to share, rather than everything that naturally goes on. This puts a lot of pressure on social media users to be just as perfect as those posting as well.

Recently, we are seeing celebrities coming out with their sides of not being so perfect. It is nice to see celebrities sharing their struggles and not so perfect lives to let us “normal” people understand that things happen, and it is a part of life and it is normal to share in order to get to know people better. An example would be Kim Kardashian, sharing her issues with pregnancy and having to use a surrogate. Kim is an A-List celebrity that is known for giving people insight into her experiences through her social media and through her show. It is such a positive experience to see someone else going through something that others could very as embarrassing or hard to talk about as Rachel Leonard from NPR said it was hard for her to talk about her difficult pregnancy.

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View Their *Real* Story

As we put down our phones at the table and try to get to know people, it’s important to realize why you enjoy their company and learn something new that you wouldn’t get from a tweet or a Facebook post. I challenge you for the next time you are out to eat, to both (or all) put down your phones and the first person to pick theirs up, pays! A great game to persuade you all to stay engaged in a real conversation and have a great conversation!

Nar the Narcissist

You may be thinking, “did she just really call herself a narcissist?”- why yes, I did.  In the new era of social media, I strongly believe have all become a little narcissistic by how we post almost all day of ourselves.  We think people genuinely care to see a picture on Snapchat of what we ate for breakfast or checking in on Facebook to the local Target.  Letting people know our every move and capturing “exciting” moments is not to keep anyone “updated” but instead, to keep ourselves relevant.

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New Post, New Me

On social media, we tend to create a life that is not so similar to our own.  People only post the best pictures, or a picture they know they are going to get a like on.  Their profile pictures tend to be the absolute best picture of themselves and they crop their friends out of the way.

Another rare find on Instagram is a picture that isn’t completely edited. I know that I usually throw a filter on my pictures to enhance the quality and make it more presentable to the public. Social media encourages narcissism by the way we post multiple pictures of ourselves for like and favorite. The people who take the most selfies tend to think they are the most beautiful. Why else would they plaster their face everywhere? A great example of this is the Kardashian’s. Every picture posted by the 5 sister’s is completely edited and staged whether they look like it or not. Kim (The second oldest) is notorious for the number of selfies she takes, to a point that she even has published a book of them called “Selfish”. It is currently a common view that Kim Kardashian is one of the most beautiful women on earth. Is this true or perception we have all built after seeing her face every single time we look at our phones?

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New Highlight

Now, I’m not saying that in order to stop being a narcissist that you need to throw away your phone and stop posting pictures to Instagram. There are some steps you could take to fill your life and build your confidence without doing so. Instead, put your phone down for a little and enjoy the view. Studies show that we are less likely to pick up on the events that are happing because we are seeing the world through social media instead of our own eyes. Another trick to not letting social media control your life is to try and get a different mindset about posting peoples. Post the picture with your pimple, post the picture where the lighting is all that great, post the first picture you took, and once you do- DON’T LOOK AT THE LIKES. It’s your social media, post what gives you joy, and it will be so much more fulfilling than putting on a different face for someone else.