If there is one message I think the current culture has downloaded into all of our brains, it’s probably this: Don’t be ordinary. Ordinary doesn’t get as many likes. It doesn’t put you on reality TV shows. It will probably never lead to celebrity or fame. It’s like a twist on the completely natural human desire to be seen… except on steroids. This is the desire to be seen by thousands. Millions. And the weird thing is that it’s closer to our fingertips than ever because, well, social media.

If you live in today’s modern world, you have experienced desensitization. Most likely, you had no idea it was happening. At this point in people’s lives, it is part of their past - a thing that happened in their childhood and continues to happen daily. It grew monumentally with the growth of technology. It started hitting stages of adolescence when the Millennial generation was young. What’s the main form of desensitizing today? Social media.

Social media seems to consume every waking moment. When you don’t have all the accounts and stay updated, it can feel like FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Younger people hang out in person and end up scrolling through Tik Tok, Twitter, or Instagram. When talking to my family, we often say “Did you see that ___?” The blank could be someone having a baby, getting married, etc. There have been days I’ve looked at my screen time at the end of the day, and the social media use has been 3-4 hours. Limits can be helpful in creating and maintaining boundaries with what we’re putting in our heads. It can feel like a daunting goal, but it is good for our mental health.