Every girl (and I’m sure some guys) have gone through and purged who they follow, who follows them, and even pictures they post on social media.
Anything from deleting Facebook friends who share every food video ever posted, to archiving photos that you don’t look the best in on instagram, even un-retweeting tweets that you think may make you look bad to a future employer.

Sometimes it makes sense: the person you were in 2012, when you made your account, is not who you are six years later.

The question is: does deleting the apps from your smart phone or logging off your account really change the way society has enforced the social media structure of your daily life? I don’t think so.

As someone who has gone through numerous social media purges, there’s still a cloud of profiles, posts and likes hovering over my head no matter what I delete or who I unfollow.

It doesn’t matter what I’m doing or who I’m with, whenever someone wants to take a picture with me or wants me to take a picture of them I think immediately to how it will look when I “instagram” it later or “Will I get a Pic Cred.?” runs through my mind. You shouldn’t do all of the things you do with a constant social media buzz in the back of your ear.

Have you ever noticed when you go to a concert people around you (maybe even yourself) have their phones out and are taking numerous photos, videos, instagram and snapchat stories [that, let’s be honest, no one really wants to see] instead of actually watching the performance?

Hey, maybe you can take pictures and videos while watching, but if I worked my butt off for weeks or even months to get that front row seat at the Ed Sheeran or Post Malone concert then maybe yeah, I would take a photo or video or two, but sometimes you miss the point of what you worked for or the meaning of what you did for the social media glory.

Every year, our school does the Big Event and every year I see tons of posts on social media with pictures of everyone smiling and talking about how great they felt helping those around them who can’t clean up their yards on their own.

I thought to myself, “Hey, this seems like fun and everyone looks happy,” so I signed up and did the event myself last year.

Guess what, no one is that happy raking leaves for 2 hours. People huddle together to take cute group pictures where they look like they are living their best lives.

Then you drive by one of those houses that the volunteers are working at and everyone is complaining and exhausted and sweaty and all they think they got from the whole process is “a cute pic” to post on instagram with some sappy caption.

No. You went and helped an elderly or unabled person do something that otherwise wouldn’t have been done.

There is so much more to life than social media, but our society as a whole is just accustomed to that cloud over our heads for every event we go to, every action we do, and more.

So again I ask: does removing the surface layer of the societal conform of social media really change the way you and those around you truly view the world we live in? Think about that next time you think that removing instagram from your phone will ease the anxiety that you feel is caused by social media.

Is it the social media that’s even causing that anxiety? That depression? Look bigger. Look at our society as a whole.

Sarah D’Agostino is an English Literature and Political Science double major. She is a staff writer for The Voice.