You Always In Your Phone.

Do you check your social media accounts everyday like I do? Is it the first thing you do in the morning or can you at least survive without it until lunch time?

Do you only check when you get notifications?

Do you ever wonder why you have to check everyday?

Are you expecting a response from a post you made, a photo you uploaded, or a response to your response on someone else’s status?

Are you expecting to get your first laugh for the day by scrolling by a meme?

I’m a heavy introvert. The type of introvert that’s socially awkward in social environments. If you ever see me very talkative and lively in a social group it’s more likely because I’m drinking.

If I’m such an introvert then why am I so in-tuned with social media?

Probably because it works in my favor. I can be social without face to face interactions. I can take my time to think of what I want to say. I don’t have to deal with the consequences of not speaking. And it’s almost impossible to be socially awkward online. If you say the wrong thing you can edit the comment or delete it. In real life you have to have social skills to recover from an awkward moment.

On social media people read your comments in their voice, or in a funny tone if the post has a “lol” in it, or in a strong assertive tone if you are using strong and assertive words.

In real life you have to worry about enunciation, speaking loud enough for others to hear you, not stuttering.

I even come to find that most extroverted people don’t post a lot on social media. The more confidence people have in speaking in public the less I see them post on social media.

I check Facebook first thing in the morning out of habit because I always run into a funny meme or interesting post. Likes get addicting too. Before I post something I always think of whether it’ll generate responses and reactions (a response is a written opinion. A reaction is an emoji). Sometimes I’ll delete a status if it didn’t get any responses because I must have said the wrong thing, which is a problem that posting stuff for likes is more important than sharing my opinion even if people don’t agree with it.

Sometimes when I see a photo I like on Instagram I don’t even like it because you know “likes” get people in their feelings. Especially if it’s a photo of themselves. If they get a lot of likes they must be a bad chick, or a dude with a lot of money. If they don’t get many likes they must be ugly.

Social media has the power to boost people up and to make them insecure. If I post a photo of myself in a fresh haircut and fresh outfit and I only get a handful of likes out of my 600-something followers then I’ll think I must not be as handsome as my aunties say I am.

Me and my wife were at the mall one day and we parked next to a Porsche. I took a photo next to the Porsche and thought about uploading it to social media.

I had to check myself. First of all, people who know me in real life know that I don’t own a Porsche and neither can I afford one so they know I’m stuntin.

And if I care enough to post photos next to cars I don’t own, especially a Porsche that a high middle class person can afford then I got serious insecurities.

When Facebook first came out it was about staying connected to your high school friends without having to give them a call. Nowadays social media is all political.

Social media is all about who is living their best life and is it better than yours. Social media will have people switching up careers, breaking up with their girlfriend, and buying a new car just so they can have something to brag about too.

Life is no longer about keeping up with the Joneses. Life is about keeping up with social media.