Social media, yay or nay?

Have you heard of Essena  O Neill?

I must admit 

I hadn't heard of her 

But apparently she was a big star on Instsgram and YouTube 

And I stumbled across an article about her this morning

In the last couple of weeks 

Essena has deleted her social media accounts

And told the truth behind the photos

The following is from an article about Essena

An Australian teenager with more than half a million followers on Instagramhas quit the platform, describing it as “contrived perfection made to get attention”, and called for others to quit social media – perhaps with help from her new website.

On 27 October she deleted more than2,000 pictures “that served no real purpose other than self-promotion”, and dramatically edited the captions to the remaining 96 posts in a bid to to reveal the manipulation, mundanity, and even insecurity behind them. O’Neill did not respond to requests for an interview.

I think it's a really important thing to discuss

Social media and how it effects us

If you look at some of the photos Essena posted on her sites 

The are of a perfectly tanned and toned slim body in a variety of beautiful outfits 

Essena explained how she measured her self worth in the amount of likes and comments she got

As well as the amount of followers she acquired 

She said that some of the photos of outfits she took never made it outside her house

She also said that although she was portraying this perfect life 

With a perfect body 

She was in actual fact miserable

I think it's a really interesting topic

As social media is relatively new in all our lives

The present young generation are the first generation to grow up with social media woven in to the fabric of their lives

And as yet 

We don't really know the effects of it in the long term 

Also social media celebrities are a new phenomenon 

You can now become famous via your YouTube channel or Instagram

If you can accumulate enough subscribers and followers 

And make enough money to make a very decent living

I don't use Instagram or YouTube 

But I peruse them from time to time

It seems like everyone on there is projecting their image of the perfect life

Endless photos of long lean limbs

At the beach 

Doing yoga

Eating fabulous food

Cocktails 

Their pets 

All the while in an array of beautiful outfits

It's easy to fall in to the trap of thinking that these Instagram celebs lead a perfect life

As this is the image they portray to us

Even Facebook can be like this 

I have a Facebook account

But rarely use it

I think I have posted maybe three photos on it over the years

I do scroll through it from time to time

But not often

I guess I use my blog to document my life

And don't feel the need to open any other social media accounts

My blog is about a specific subject

Recovery from addiction and ED

But as you know

I also post about many other areas of my life 

From my family to my pets and everything in between

There have been times when I have worried over the amount of comments I got and the amount of hits my blog got of a day 

That was me measuring my self worth in the eyes of other 

I try not to do that now

And concentrate on writing my blog as best as I can

If people read and comment great

But if they don't, that's ok too

My blog is primarily for me

To help me navigate through recovery

And if I can help someone else along the way, that is a bonus

I think it's all about self worth

A lot of us ED bloggers measure our self worth in pounds and ounces 

By the number on the scale 

Or our clothes size 

Those little numbers control how good we feel about ourselves 

Thankfully I can now look stand on the scale and not have a complete and utter meltdown over the number

I can weigh myself 

Look at the number

And see it for what it is 

My body's weight in stones and pounds or kilograms 

It does not determine how I am as a person

My self worth

I can see how people easily get caught up in the stats of blogging and social media

It's easy to fall in to the trap of getting a buzz seeing your stats rise

Or seeing the amount of people who say how great you are

If you were reading a few weeks back

You will remember the hullabaloo over a comment on my blog

Someone who cared enough to tell me the truth

I didn't see it like that at the time

And saw it as an attack

However now

In hindsight

I can see that that person was trying to help me

I appreciate that now

And learned valuable lessons from that incident

The thing is 

We can't hang our happiness on a number

Whether it's a clothes size or the amount of likes we get

Yes, it's nice to get them

But our self worth should come from a deeper place

A place of knowing that we are good people

That we are doing our best to do the right thing and be the best people we can be

I guess time will tell how social media effects us in the long term

I think what Essena did is very brave 

Scrolling through social media can be quite depressing if you compare yourself to all these beautiful people

We have to have strong core beliefs in ourselves

That we are enough just the way we are

Know that if we spent all day taking selfies it will never fill the hole in our soul of not liking ourselves 

I've been struggling lately with not liking and even hating myself 

I've had to take a good look at my life

And see what is helping me and what is hindering me

For me 

The positives of my blog greatly out weigh the negatives 

This community has been a life line for me over the years

But lately I've realised that my virtual life is not enough

I need real life relationships 

Real life interactions 

Because we all need to connect with others

You can't beat sitting down over a cup of tea and putting the world to right

At least in our own little worlds 

With all that said 

I was wondering about you 

What do you think of social media?

Do you use Instagram or YouTube?

Do you check how many like, comments and followers you get?

Do you think it helps or hinders you?

Do you measure your self worth by external forces?

I'd love to know....