As a fifth grader, I remember begging my parents to let me download instagram because all of my friends had it. After months of prying and begging, my parents finally allowed me to get it. I followed all of my friends, and mutual friends. From the first day I downloaded the app, I recall how badly it stung when someone wouldn’t follow me back or wouldn’t like one of my posts. It only escalated from there. Posting on instagram became a source of anxiety for me instead of a fun way to connect with friends. Most of the time I would dread posting because I was scared that my post wouldn’t get enough likes or comments. As I got older I began to notice the only posts that would gain likes were pictures of my body or face. Instead of posting pictures I liked, I would start posting pictures that I knew would GET likes. Now I have realized how dumb social media actually is, and I could care less about how many likes and followers I have which is a huge step. Something that really helped the anxiety I would feel surrounding posting on social media is the option to hide the like count. If instagram also gave an option to hide follower count as well I feel as though that would especially help young kids growing up with social media.
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