Rodriguez 1

Alan Rodriguez

Professor Beadle

English 115

5 October 2017

Project Space

Social media addiction has created monsters within the adolescence community. The

hype of social media began with the creation of Myspace, which then lead to the creation of

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. These social media platforms on their own are

innocent, the actions of the users are what make it monstrous, such as Cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying is at an all-time high due to the fact teens and or millennials hide behind a screen

and say harmful comments without any consequence. These actions have driven others to harm

themselves. The attachment to behind the screen has created monsters within the entire youth

community.

The beginning of social media was lite and easy and now it has consumed us into judging

each other. Social media was created to share your content, and is a new way of communicating

with friends and people you have connected with. Social media has evolved into a space of

validation based on the number of your following and the number of likes you get. The first

social media surge was in 2003, Myspace, allow being one of the first forms of social media it

was quite small. Myspace was the newest way to make friends, had your best friend list, and had

no issues. In 2005, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, the biggest social networking site to

the day. Facebook went global and the environment was vanilla in the beginning, but soon came
 Rodriguez 2

the criticism. In that same year Twitter launched, although not as big as Facebook it was still

ended up a negative space. Soon followed Instagram, which now, is our source for validation.

Being a part of Instagram you are expected to keep an image of perfection and you want

everyone to love you for it. Instagram has its rules, for one you must have a certain aesthetic,

and do not post too much. I for one follow these rules, I am cautious to when I post and the

quality of my photos. I now take photos on a professional camera, carefully chose the clothes I

wear, the lighting, and the way I am standing or posing. Once the photo has received my

approval, I go and edit it. I will either chose a filter, change exposure, or add clarity. Then I

would post, but I expected a certain amount of likes and if that doesnt happen I delete and

repost. It is an unnecessary and tedious habit, but deep down I want that validation, I want the

big number of likes, we all do. Instagram has fixated our mindset to this validation machines

who are hungry for love even if it is fake. This is what makes Instagram the most negative

spaces.

Instagram is the most negative space in social media where you post a photo and

everyone has the ability to say whatever hurtful remark that comes to mind just to bring you

down. That is how they become monsters. In the book, Monsters by Andrew J. Hoffman there is

an article Here Be Monsters by Ted Genoways, he states that monsters in this day in age are

created due to the actions of society: Sometimes the monster is of our own creation, such as the

threat of the nuclear age. (TG 130). This means that as a society we are destructive and our

creations are destroying what weve built. In this case, the creation of social media is what lead

to the teens becoming monsters. Now we fear to go on post because of to the monstrous attacks,

this comes from the unhealthy attachment to the internet.

 Rodriguez 3

Our attachment to the internet has made us run away from the big issues and we just keep

running hoping it will go away. In the article, My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels

Rather Undead by Chuck Klosterman, Klosterman compares the zombie epidemic to the

internet: Zombies are like the internet and the media and every conversation we dont to have.

And As long as we keep deleting whatevers directly in front of us, we survive. (CK 42). We

are the undead attached to the internet and even in these days of social media we are too attached

to the screen and typing away. We as the zombies of society we thrive to judge those based on a

photo and we feel better doing so. We have let this issue grow and we do not address the issues

people have when it comes to harassing people on the internet. The harassers are their own

monsters and we must over cast their negativity with positivity. Personally, I have been on the

other end of the attacks.

Instagram, or any form of social media, is of its own world, it makes you feel like you are

all by yourself, alienated. I joined social media at a young age because everyone was joining, so

of course I jumped at the opportunity. Since I was young I did not know what cyberbullying was

and how hurtful the comments could be. The first platform I joined was Instagram and I posted

whatever a 12-year-old would post, selfies, memes, random childish thoughts, etc. There was one

day a had posted a silly picture then I received a notification saying, you got a comment. The

person commented saying how stupid I had looked and that I should delete my page. Sadly, this

was a friend of mine and it didnt stop there. Comments kept coming in and in that moment, I

had felt that loneliness, completely removed from society. I was surrounded by judgement and

after that I wanted to change myself completely. I became insecure, with that insecurity came a

stigma, I didnt want to post anything or look at people in eye. I was utterly ashamed about who I

was. Mentally I was envisioning what would make me look more likeable, new clothes? Work
 Rodriguez 4

out? Change my hair? I was having a battle within my own mind and this is what most teens feel

when joining social media. It wasnt until my close friends gave me the recurrence I needed.

They told me that I dont want to be exactly like everyone else, a zombie, I needed to post what I

wanted because I am who I am and they cant change me. They gave me the most important life

lesson, if someone wants to you to change it is because they feel insecure about themselves.

Friends or anyone needs to give this recurrence to teens being cyberbullying, out do the

negativity with positivity.

The attachment to behind the screen monsters within the entire youth community. We as

teens have been sucked into the space of social media and we created the negative environment

where we seek validation. We have made ourselves zombies, feeding off of the likes and

comments the more we achieve another day we will live. When looking for likes and comments

we also criticize others to mask the insecurities we feel in this space. Rather than being a zombie,

be your own individual and use the way social media was intended. We must be able to

communicate, meet new people, most importantly feel safe. I know that when I am true to myself

on social media I am safe. For others to feel safe we must over cast the negativity with positivity.
 Rodriguez 5

Works Cited

Genoways, Ted. Here Be Monsters. Monsters. Ed. Leasa Burton. Bedford/St. Martin, 2016.

130-133.

Klosterman, Chuck. My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead. Monsters.

Ed. Leasa Burton. Bedford/St. Martin, 2016.