Picture yourself in this situation: You’re in the middle of orchestrating the perfect Snapchat to send to the guy you’ve been lusting and loving after. You have spent a solid fifteen minutes styling your hair and makeup. You’ve positioned yourself in the most casual-yet-sexy pose on your bed, with the coolest-most-casual caption, like “sooo sunburnt today”. Of course you add the cutest smiley emoji to keep things light.
All in all, the Snapchat is gorgeous, it is the social media equivalent to a Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece. You are extremely proud and excited because there’s no way he can turn down this stunning, but relaxed, photo of you.
Of course, you see about twenty minutes later that he’s read the Snapchat and has chosen not to respond. You are devastated. You ask yourself, why do I care?
Why do you care? What is it about taking a Snapchat and having no response that makes us so distressed and nervous about our social standing? It’s just as bad as getting no likes on Instagram or Facebook. We’re so tuned into what everyone else thinks of us, or how everyone sees us, that we go into panic mode when we don’t get the reaction we were hoping for.
There may not be a trick for handling the fear of not receiving a Snapchat in response to your chef d’oeuvre. You can, however, find ways to spend your time besides sending quick pictures of yourself looking pretty.
For example, you can volunteer at a homeless shelter, adopt a pet, find an internship if you’re a college or high school student, spend time with your friends, learn to cook real food, start a blog, or buy yourself some new shoes. All of these things will be far more satisfying for you than being sad over a lost Snapchat. Think about this, the person you’re pining over would most likely respond to an actual text. They don’t even know that the picture was meant solely for them.]
**This is an awkward and uncalled for transition. The point is stating that we, as an electronic world, are too caught up in the approval of others, so how can we spend more time learning to love ourselves as opposed to seeking acceptance from those around us? State small possible examples to assist in that goal/life change. Simply telling someone to serve soup to the homeless or get an exotic fish isn’t helpful, it’s almost silly.**
