How to Be Yourself

We live in a social media-driven and noise-saturated world where we are encouraged to take selfies of ourselves and witnessing events such as our child’s first attempt at making cookies, our purchases at Costco, or how we look while at home in our PJs. Is it really necessary for us to be clicking all those photos, and are they helping us to feel better about ourselves?

I believe that each of these actions is harming our self-esteem and self-confidence. This is because we’re always compared to others. Therefore, our self-confidence is threatened because comparison makes us feel less than others. We are deeply influenced by how we treat ourselves and how we value ourselves. It, therefore, follows that being on social media too often can have a negative impact on the quality of our lives.

The reason this is the case is that social media encourages us to ignore the here and now and to fixate our minds on abstract, far-in-the-future stuff like hopes, aspirations, and dreams. Every time we glance at our phone, we find ourselves barraged with third-rate advice, and unorthodox encouragements to believe in our dreams. But what about the real person behind the dreams? What about taking steps to decide what we genuinely want?

I don’t think that social media cares much about who we are. All the distractions are causing us to focus on things outside of us instead of the inside, where we can determine who we truly are and decide on how to act based on our values. This is so important, yet it is not emphasized enough by psychologists. Whether we are teenagers or young adults, we struggle with the problem of who we are.

In this e-book, I will encourage you to think outside of the media box. Further, I will persuade you to look past the media and reframe your awareness. Throughout this e-book, I will urge you to cultivate your true self.