After finding the perfect outfit, the perfect location, and then eventually the perfect photo, you finally prepare to make a post. Adjusting exposure, saturation and contrast, the photo you chose is finally deemed perfect. You take a deep breath and press “post.” As you refresh your feed you realize it has been a full minute, and no one has liked or commented yet. With a sigh, you delete the post and forget about it.
Social media’s prevalence has grown over the years, and with it, standards have evolved, and so has the outlook on what a quality post is. With this change, the pressure to post content has reached a new high. Viviana Cilano ’26 is cautious about what and how she posts, monitoring the interactions it gets.
“I would like to say that the number of likes doesn’t affect how I feel about it, but, of course, it does,” Cilano said. “I feel like that affects everybody, specifically in high school, and the amount of pressure there is to look perfect on social media.”
The presence of this pressure can suck the pleasure out of sharing a post. Cilano admits that posting can get tiring and ultimately becomes more stressful than it is worth.
“I just don’t feel like putting the time and energy into doing it,” Cilano said. “It is a lot of work and just a lot of pressure in high school to make it perfect.”
However, for some, posting is a positive process that they enjoy doing. Seeing many different sides to issues among students, South’s Psychologist Lisa Khoury has seen some benefits come out of social media.
“If people use social media in a way that is more reflective about themselves and their experiences, uplifting things or positive things that could be a very encouraging thing for others to see,” Khoury said.
With that mindset, Delaney Meyers ’26 has fun with her posts and loves sharing content with her followers.
“I like sharing my pictures with everyone, especially my family that lives far away,” Meyers said. “They don’t get to see a lot of my life, so sharing my photos shows them what is going on.”
As she feels the excitement of creating a new post for her grid, Meyers posts frequently, which eliminates some of the stress that others feel.
“I post a lot, so it’s not like ‘Oh you have to post’,” Meyers said “I [post] because I like it, but I think a lot of other people feel pressured and don’t really want to.”
While producing content often is a good way to make the stress of posting less nerve-wracking, all media use should be approached carefully. Khoury warns students of the overuse of social media and how it can affect self-worth.
“People really have to check themselves with their social media diet,” Khoury said. “It’s like how much you take in. Know what your ‘calorie count’, or your ‘social media count’ is, so that you don’t rely on social media to influence your sense of yourself and your well-being.”
Posting is scary, but through the pressure involved in generating content, it should be kept in mind that social media is meant to be used for fun. Regardless of the nerves she faces before posting, Cilano is proud of the posts that she creates.
“Posting kind of makes me stressed out, but then once I actually do it, it makes me feel good and I like the way it turns out,” Cilano said.
