What these instahams don’t understand is that true self-esteem and self-respect doesn’t develop from emptily telling yourself that you’re The Shit over and over. It comes from overcoming difficult challenges, growing and developing physical and mental strength, mastering things that are difficult through practice and hard work, then being proud of those things. This is what I hate about the “everyone gets a trophy” culture. It encourages mediocrity all around. Social media kinda makes this worse because it provides bucket crabs with instant gratification for their retardedness whereas before the Internet, they were somewhat limited by the social circles you were physically in. Being able to whip out your magic rectangle, opening Instagram, put no effort into some shitty bathroom selfie, and get instant validation, perpetuates dumb ideas and the whole American culture of mediocrity. I have nothing against social media in a general sense. I love being able to connect with my friends and exchange photos in a a flash. My old ass remember sending hand written letters and post cards to people. I post on IG from time to time if it’s something I think people will find interesting. I even post selfies on the rare occasion because I like being validated too, I’m not ashamed of this. There’s a hilarious stark contrast between people that I know in person that are amazing because they practice constantly (fitness trainers, musicians, artists etc), and the “reality” of the “Instagram vs reality” posts in terms of self esteem. One group has it, one doesn’t, and the latter just perpetuates dumb ideas through the echo chamber that our future generations are vulnerable to.