Individuality is what makes us human. Every person on this planet has their own interests and beliefs. We all dress differently, say different things, read different books, and watch different movies.

The increase in popularity of social media has been diminishing the differences that we, as a society, rely on. This influence from “content creators” or “influencers” can be seen among teenagers very clearly, with internet trends and clothing that has gone viral as the “style of the season” 

“I feel like we are such a mimic society now that we have to mimic what everybody else is doing,” Ms. Rust-Matter, social media marketing teacher, said.

Sometimes, this desire to follow trends is simply from the influence of the natural teenage craving to fit or blend in to the crowds of other students in the hallway. Now, this isn’t true for everyone, but it is contributing to the issue. 

As a society, it seems that among younger generations, the thought of being yourself can sometimes be embarrassing, which just isn’t accurate. If we have no differences than when looking at the whole of the group, we all just end up lumped into this damaging, stereotype group. Before this concept becomes true, it’s important to think about the real consequences of this.

“It’s destroying people’s mental health all the time, especially in today’s world,” Savannah Thomas (‘26) said. “… So if they feel like they don’t fit in, it tears down people’s self-esteem.”

Individuality isn’t just speaking about personality and interests, but also behavior towards other people. With trends and terms such as “#BringBackBullying” becoming more popularized recently, even in a sarcastic way, people’s behavior slowly changes due to what they think will get them the most likes, comments, or shares. It’s all about getting clicks.

“I feel like kids are not as social or respectful as they used to be because of social media, 100%” Matter said.

At this point, we have begun to rely on social media to tell us who we are. This is another detail that doesn’t apply to everyone, but the issue is becoming increasingly more common and with that normalization, comes a lack of attention to how damaging it is to mental health, attitude, and more.

“I don’t think they [students] are themselves,” Matter said. “Because they copy what’s on social media all the time. We are not individuals anymore.” 

Everyone does not have the same experiences on social media, but it seems like one common issue among generations is a term we now use that refers to mindless scrolling; doom scrolling. 

According to the University of Maine, as of 2023, the average time spent on social media worldwide is roughly 2 hours and 24 minutes per day and even now, it doesn’t seem to be going down. Those numbers may not seem scary, until you think about how much time that is in the average lifetime of 73 years.

Just using these averages, it can be estimated that a person would be spending roughly 59,864 hours on social media in their lifetime. That is about 2,486 days of your life, spent watching other people live the lives others are convinced they can’t.

We spend so much time watching people just be people, that we forget how to live in our own way. Many people have become reliant on social media to tell them what they like. Once they realize how much life they have missed out on, they have to practically rebuild their entire lives. That’s why it’s important to realize it early. There are 4.8 billion people on social media. Maybe we can become our own people if that number begins to shrink.

In order to make this happen however, we need to understand what individuality actually is.

“It means basically who you are as a person,” Haylee Swanson (‘28) said. “You’re expressing yourself, and kind of what makes you unique,”