When using social media, it is so important that people keep in mind that not everything presented to them is realistic. Posts on social media can be altered and airbrushed to make everything seem better than they really are. Not only can posts be altered, but posts are really only the highlights of a person’s life. Of course, people are not going to post their struggles and stresses in life; they are only going to post their triumphs and times worth showing off. If you use social media with the mindset that everything you see is 100% authentic, you will fall into the trap of believing that you and your life is lesser than someone else’s. You will believe that no one else is struggling when you are. This is obviously seriously degrading to your mental health especially if you are a frequent user of social media. Feeling like you must constantly compare yourself to others is already quite hard to fight and the social media world just makes this an even harder fight. As stated in, "Using Social Media for Social Comparison and Feedback-Seeking: Gender and Popularity Moderate Associations with Depressive Symptoms," "this allows adolescents to receive constant feedback from their peers and to engage in social comparison processes with them online (Manago et al. 2008)." Comparing yourself to other people only leads to self-conscious thoughts and possibly even more serious issues such as depression. "Comparisons can be harmful when they leave you feeling chronically inferior or depressed" (Webber, 2017). It is much healthier to use social media keeping in mind that posts are different from the real world. Being able to distinguish the social media realm from the real world will help a person be less susceptible for possible mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Checking social media with the idea that everything is real could cause a person to feel that they must change the way they look, or even the people they associate with. If a person embraces social media and takes everything posted on it as being 100% authentic, it will be easy to fall into the trap of letting that social media dictate their life.