By MAKENNA WOOD
Staff Writer
As entertainment and social media gain a larger part into our lives, bringing progressiveness to social justice and acceptance of unpopular beliefs; they also bring romanticization. This romanticization that is slowly infecting our society glamorizes someone else’s life, causing people to resent their own. The dissatisfaction that comes along with idealizing a life that is not yours leaves damaging effects on who you are as a person and can be detrimental if left unchecked.
Resentment of one’s own life is brought forth by comparison. This constant comparison that people put themselves through is a sort of default thought process; it is as if the persistent “bug” in your head has no self-control, resulting in an alter ego consumed by gluttony and jealousy. There are many victims to this unhealthy obsession involving romanticization but one group that is continually affected day in and day out are teenagers. A primary example of this obsession is how teenagers’ lives revolve around their phones. There is very little data to contradict this statement, but the issue is not that their phone is now akin to the sun which is the center of the universe, but rather that the phone causes them to live on a completely different planet of their own making. Their phone contains access to social media; which almost every teenager possesses. Social media then shoves pictures and videos of phenomenal and astounding lives where people are always vacationing in different countries, always surrounded by friends and partners, always cared for. It is not unnatural to want what other people have but it is unnatural to be plagued with romanticizing something that can not be yours. Some people would argue that because they yearned for a life with such high standards; they are now thriving, better than ever. This is not the situation for most people though as life is very, pick and choose, and is often a coin toss that is one-sided. When society decides to not re-evaluate their standards for their life, even though it is most likely that they will never be met, the morality of that society starts to fade and diminish; the peoples’ soul along with it.