Wednesday, April 22, 2015

My Fear for Social Media

Anyone who really knows me knows I love social media. I mean I have a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account. Yesterday while I was browsing through my news-feed (Facebook) I started to read about the Kylie Jenner Challenge. It was hash-tagged #KylieJennerChallenge, I was horrified, I mean jaw-dropping horrified. If you don't know what the challenge was - it basically went like this: You put your lips into a shot-glass and sucked up all the air, the suction you created made your lips swell to look like Kylie Jenner's. I am sure a lot of people saw some of the horrific outcomes of this, some people literally destroyed their lips and need to have surgery. Not to mention, Kylie had Botox injections to make her lips actually look that plump.

Kylie Jenner's response to the #KylieJennerChallenge
It literally scares me to think that a bunch of people were putting their lips into glass shot glasses, even as a joke to make fun of one person who didn't even promote the challenge.
How about spreading a different challenge online? How about #30daystoahealthieryouchallenge #learnanewskillchallenge #readabookchallenge #walkamilechallenge? I could go on and on about the million different things we could be challenging ourselves as a society to do that I think a lot of celebrities would actually promote!

After reading the news-feed and comments about the whole challenge, I was literally disgusted with social media altogether. I had to actually sit it out for a couple of hours while they picked up a new trending topic that wasn't the challenge. I was so happy that today was Earth Day!

My partner and I were talking about the challenge and I mentioned to her that I was actually afraid of what our kids will be exposed to. I'm not one of those crazy parents that don't believe in kids having computers, laptops, cells phones, social media accounts, etc. I believe a little exposure helps children weed out the right from the wrong, but I mean COME ON. Do I really want my teenage daughter (I have a FEW more years before this happens, Thankfully) scrolling through her Facebook looking at busted and bruised lips? We need to set the tone as a society that enough is enough. Why are we idolizing a person's lips? Has social media really made us as a society THAT shallow?

Just remember:
"You are enough" - Rachel Brathen @yoga_girl

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