graphic by kayleigh woltal
Gen Zers are the first generation to be raised almost entirely online. Like Millennials and Gen Xers, Gen Zers are able to remember having more analog media players like VHS tapes, CDs, cassettes as well as the first versions of devices we cannot imagine living without — namely, smartphones. Gen Z saw the shift from disconnected analog media devices to the interconnected world of social media happen in real time, and it coincided with their personal growth and development for better and for worse.
I remember making my first Instagram account with my friend at a sleepover at age 11. My username was some hodge podge combination of my hyperfixations at the time (shoutout to One Direction, Little Mix and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland). I quickly followed all the people in my school and worked up the courage to press the request button for kids a grade or two older than me. It was a rush. Even though I wasn’t really interacting with them at all besides this, I felt closer to them in a way. Social media seemed to be a positive to me at the time.
Of course, as an insecure kid (and now, insecure adult), social media’s glimmer and shininess soon faded as the years went on. By high school, social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat soon became about comparison and competition rather than communication and sharing. They spurred feelings of anxiety and depression because of the constant feeds showcasing constructed perfection. Gone were the 2012 days of awkward photos of you and your friends, memes reposted so many times their contrast and saturation were messed up and delightfully cringy photo filters. Every post was concerned with how you presented yourself physically and how put-together your life seemed. Instagram was (and still is) about how good you looked and, by extension, how great your life appeared to be. We’ve all heard “social media isn’t real! It’s all highlight reels and filters!” This is true, and most people on social media know this. However, you cannot dispute how much this phenomenon of constantly showcasing perfection and equating it with personal worth has psychologically affected young people.
By the time I was in college, I observed on social media less of a reliance on how appearances translated to life quality and more to how achievements equaled moral value. Specifically, I saw more of my peers spending their time on LinkedIn, a job-posting site that seems to be inching closer to a social media app. LinkedIn has essentially become a new form of Instagram. I don’t literally mean that LinkedIn’s core demographics (job seekers) and purpose (job posting) have been abandoned and those of Instagram have been subsequently adopted; rather, LinkedIn has adopted similar algorithmic behaviors to Instagram that have psychologically affected its users’ view of their self worth.
I built my LinkedIn earlier this year after coming to the sudden (and late) realization how pivotal it had become in building the current workforce. As I mentally filed through all of my personal and academic achievements, relevant experiences and past employment and transcribed it to my infant profile, I became excited and proud to showcase my achievements. The more connections I made, however, a familiar feeling washed over me similar to when I made my profile on Instagram. I became filled with dread and self-criticism as I witnessed people’s announcements of new internships and recent employment as I sat waiting on dozens of internships to return me any semblance of a response. Connections’ profiles with numerous qualifications and multiple pages of experiences haunted me — mine looked bare-bones in comparison. The profile and achievements that I was once proud of became worthless in my mind. It became a stain I couldn’t wash out rather than something worth framing.
It feels silly to admit this — that a mere site negates all of my achievements and all of my success. However, isn’t this thought in the same vein of what photo-sharing and video-sharing apps like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok do? If we’re speaking strictly in terms of appearances and how they translate into life or moral quality, don’t these social media sites make us feel lesser in our appearances and our lifestyles? It’s a similar if not identical phenomenon.
I know I’m not alone in this sentiment. There are entire Reddit threads, tweets and TikToks dedicated to how depressing of a site LinkedIn is, especially for those who are struggling to find employment, recently laid-off individuals or those eager to join the ranks of competitive internships. While with other social media sites like Instagram there can be some acknowledgement between real-life and online appearances, LinkedIn is firmly based on concrete achievements and successes that can make, break and create careers and affect livelihoods. This is scary for a college senior with little applicable experience who will be entering the workforce in less than a year. It cannot be understated how important of a platform it is. However, is this importance worth the psychological cost?
The critical part of my brain is berating me for these feelings. It’s telling me that I am objectively under-qualified and not worth any recruiter’s time because of my inadequacy. I have to be doing something wrong, and if I act and feel this way, I clearly do not deserve the positions others are rightfully getting.
The rational part of my brain is more forgiving. I just need to get more experience, work on personal projects, talk to others and gain insight as well as advice on how to achieve the career I want. It reiterates to me that everyone is on a different timeline and on a different career path. I just have to keep trying and keep applying.
Hopefully the latter part helps me through this, but it’s difficult when posting about every aspect of our lives on social media is so normalized. My inner-critic is constantly fed on social media, so logically it would be better to take a break from it altogether. However, social media is more than simply sharing yourself and your thoughts: it is also about building your brand and teaching you how to market yourself. How can I take a break from such an omnipresent and essential aspect of our lives and our careers? I think the answer is I can’t. Until then, I will continue multitasking existential dread with networking while scrolling through LinkedIn because I cannot build my future without it. But I will also continue to focus on pursuits that make me happy instead of stressed — ones that can build my career and better myself like writing or talking to other professionals about their experiences. I just need to find a balance and remind myself everything will be okay, and hopefully it will.