Social  Media  And  How  It  Has  Affected  Me

Happy Monday! Well I thought I would get a little deep on today’s blog post. This wasn’t planned but as soon as I saw this wall after taking my outfit pictures at the Paul Smith Melrose pink wall which I blogged about last week here. I saw this white and pink square mural that had the word social media on it. For fun, I took pictures in front of it and I was only going to use it for Instagram so I had pictures to post. Then after the pictures were taken, my roommate and I sat at the tables which the building the painting was on is a coffee shop so we took a break after standing in the sun taking pictures. I sat there next to it and watched all kinds of other girls take their turns posing and taking pictures in front of the social media mural as well. It got me thinking that social media is so popular and I thought it would make a great blog post to talk more about social media. So here is a blog post of me and my take on social media and how it has affected me.

| sweater // dress // bag // sneakers // earrings // bow // sunglasses |

There are a lot of pros and cons of social media. First I wanted to state all the positives from having social media. It’s not always bad and I think there are some good things that came out of being on social media.

Now there are a lot of positives to it. For one, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing right now. I would probably have a whole other job and I don’t know if I would like it or not. I would have probably just stayed in the Philippines and settled down there forever. I wouldn’t have choose to move to LA because I would be tied down to a job or something else.

I wouldn’t have have gained a bit of body confidence. I probably would still be scared to wear anything that showed my curves off. I have been pretty confident with myself and if it wasn’t for other girls online showing they can do it then I probably wouldn’t. I’ve been embracing my body and I’ve been writing more posts about my body confidence journey which I have one here and here plus a lot more if you search around on the blog with the body positive tag. I even showed a bit of skin in an outfit last week and felt empowered by it which if you missed it then read it here.

Next is connect with other people with similar interests. If there wasn’t social media then I wouldn’t have made online friends and others who like the same stuff as me. We find others who you never thought would be so like you and I feel like that is so awesome. I love reading things on Twitter where you see something from you’re childhood and others comment that they did the same or something like that for example. I find it so cool that you find something relateable and not alone about a matter.

Also another thing that is very positive about social media is staying in contact with loved ones. Now that I live in LA and my family is still in Manila that means if social media didn’t exist then I would be spending so much money to call them on a regular basis. Since we have social media and an internet connection I can talk to my cousins for hours and let them know about what I’m up to. I can catch up and feel like I’m still in contact with them even though I’m far far away. Also I got to find relatives I hadn’t talk to in a while so we have that.

However there are a few negatives and cons as well. I mean sometimes social media can be very negative and can affect me even harder than the positives sometimes. I look at my social medias and if I’m not having a good day it can spiral for me and I end up hating ever finding and being on social media.

One of those examples is seeing all those amazing pictures on Instagram. I mean it’s good and bad. I find so much inspiration from others and admire their work but then again it can tear down my self- confidence even though that wasn’t the intention of the picture. I hope I’m not alone with thinking that. I find someones picture and think that I’m not as pretty or photogenic. Some girls make their pictures so effortless when I put so much effort into mine and I don’t get enough credit. I know I shouldn’t think this way and I’m working on it but of course sometimes it affects me.

Another negative is all the drama. I’m thankful I have never gotten into any of the drama on social media. My family life is enough drama for me. I see it online about so many issues and it makes me so grateful to not participate. When I see it, I do look into it but I never get involved. It seems so high school the stuff I see.

The biggest negative of course is cyber bullying. I have gotten a few bad comments on both the blog and Youtube and I can tell you it did hurt. I mean I was conflicted as I felt special that someone took time out of their day to write something to me even though it was bad and then I still felt bad that the comment was mean and I kind of took it to heart. That is the harshest thing I have experienced online and I’m grateful it was just a mean comment here and there. I know others suffer far worse and it affects their mental health so much and I feel for those who go through that. It’s definitely not fun and definitely a negative that social media and how it has affected me.

That was my take on social media and how it has affected me. It’s good and bad and hope you can relate about how it can affect you as well. I loved writing this and sharing my opinion on what I think about social media. It’s crazy how this fun photo shoot that was meant only for Instagram became a blog post and I could create content from that little thought while sitting there and staring at this artwork painted onto a wall. Of course there are so many more positives and negatives of social media but those are a few that social media and how it has affected me. I hope you enjoyed this blog post and it was a little different for once. Let me know your pros and cons about being on social media.