Dealing With Social Media Perceptions and Pressures

We've all been there. You're catching up on what you've missed in the last couple hours on your social media platform of choice, and all you're seeing is: perfect pictures, witty musings, and status updates that would make the Pope jealous. You probably find yourself  going in one of three directions:  

1. Motivated to out do your current social media pals with your next photo / post / update, and you blur the lines between truth and fiction. 
2. You get slightly (or, majorly) depressed at how boring / ordinary / generally unexciting your life is.  
3. You forsake all social media, declare it hollow and soulless, and go back to using Windows 95. 

OK, maybe the third option is a bit extreme, but I know as someone who has grown up with technology and uses social media, that I've experienced the first two at different points. Honestly, as I write this, in my mind, I'm rolling through the images on my instagram account and asking, "Truth or fiction?"

Now imagine being a teen and trying to process what's really going on behind all those posts, tweets, and pictures posted to any number of social media platforms they are taking in. That is a lot of perceptions and intentions to sort through. Especially, if you are trying to figure out who you are and what your life means.

Here is a great article to help us as parents of teens understand what's going on with our teen as they use social media. Especially, when their reaction to what's being posted is depression (mild or severe).

If the link doesn't work, copy this into your browser of choice:

http://www.cpyu.org/files/2014/10/CPYU-Trend-Alert-Facebook-Depression.pdf