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For the past few years, social media has been a huge part of my life. It has brought my family and I so many amazing opportunities and allowed me to meet so many amazing people. It is truly been a great experience, however, there is another side to it that not everybody sees.

Social media users, like myself, tend to present the best possible image of themselves. We share the fun, exciting, and positive things going on and share our most flattering photos, basically creating the impression that life is perfect, sharing one good time after another. However, this is not always the case. I love showing the positive side of life and promoting positivity on my social media accounts but this doesn't mean that my life is positive all the time, which is what some people assume. Everyone faces ups and downs, which is totally normal. This is one thing that bothers me about social media that people don't usually get to see.

Another issue related to this topic is a lot people think that since our jobs are based on social media and we don't work a 9-5, that we have it so easy and there's no work or effort involved in anything we do, however this is totally wrong. There is SO much time and effort involved in the work I do and sometimes it gets too much to handle. It can be frustrating when you get comments saying things like  "you don't do any work "or  "everything comes easy to you" or you have an easy life" because that really isn't true. If people could see what goes on behind the scenes I think they'd appreciate the work we do a little more.

Having no privacy is another challenging aspect of sharing your life on social media. Don't get me wrong, I love sharing my life and my family with my followers and supporters, however these aren't the only people watching. There are a lot of people watching just to criticize you and invade your privacy, which is hard to deal with sometimes. I try to find a balance with sharing my life and my family, but also keeping some things private which I think is very important. Living in the moment is something I really treasure so when making memories with my family and going through certain experiences, there needs to be a time when the phones and cameras shut off and we can enjoy these experiences privately as a family. Those are some of the moments I treasure the most.

With social media and the Internet in general, always remember, what you see isn't always what you get. There's a lot more that goes on that isn't exposed and I think it's important for people to understand that before judging and jumping to conclusions.

By Yalda  Golsharifi