Don’t base your worth on likes.

We seem to live in a time where social media rules our lives. We wake up and immediately check our phones. Most the time, sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the last things we see before we go to bed. We spend so much time becoming this awesome person, just for the people on the Internet. We thrive on the amount of likes we can get on a picture. How many followers can we get, how many comments can we get people to make.

Social media rules the world.

That’s why almost everyone is on it. However, the mistake people make is letting it determine their self worth. If they don’t get a certain amount of likes on Instagram they take down the photo. They assume no one liked the way they look. If no one comments on your statuses on Facebook, they equate that as if they just aren’t interesting enough, so they must change.

As you’re reading this, just like as I’m typing this, you must think that I’m crazy. That people don’t actually feel this way. People cannot be that dependent of social media.

But they are.

Truth is I was too. I changed my social media presence to fit some cool kid persona. I wouldn’t post anything that wouldn’t get likes, and I’d take anything down that didn’t get very many. Truth be told there were times I was a completely different person online. All for likes and internet friends. I used to take over 100 selfies, just to choose the best one to post. Get all dolled up just to take a picture. (I wasted a lot of make up then.) I seemed to believe that if I didn’t no one would like me. That if no one liked my stuff, then there was obviously something wrong with me and I needed to change.

It took so long for me to realize; Likes do not equal self worth.

Just because someone doesn’t like your photo, doesn’t mean you aren’t beautiful. Just because no one retweets you, doesn’t mean what you have to say is any less important. Just because your status gets zero love, doesn’t mean no one likes who you are.

I finally learned that after coming home from college. I was no longer posting about UTK, and no one was liking my stuff. No one was commenting asking how I was or wondering what I was doing. I lost a lot of followers on Instagram and Twitter. At first I freaked out. I wasn’t interesting enough I guess. Then I decided, who cares? I liked my feeds. I liked my expression. I liked the few friends I did talk to.

Likes do not equal self worth.

You can have a thousand followers and get a thousand likes but none of it matters if you aren’t being true to yourself. There’s no need to be someone different just to please people online. You can be on social media without losing yourself. If you’re a beautiful and awesome person, social media can’t change that. The amount of likes, won’t change that.

So stop relying on them to tell you if you are awesome and beautiful. Because you are.