KATHMANDU, MARCH 24

"Ting! That's the notification on your mobile, which you wake up with. We have pushed ourselves so much into that gadget that we cannot get out of it. Technology has penetrated everywhere and made life easier, but there is a price to it! The social media is now there to validate you, which is affecting our generation, making the escape impossible.

It is the number of likes, comments and views on your video that validate you. There is no time for self-assessment of our actions or troubles because the whole virtual world is sitting right in front of you to say what you did right and where you went wrong. And with hundreds and thousands of minds giving their own perceptions, you are being confused.

My 11-year-old niece was upset the whole day as she got only 50 likes and two comments for a picture that I uploaded two hours ago! "Maybe I should have uploaded another picture," she complained.

Given the huge influence of the social media, today we live in an era where it has become your approving agency. If we are validated well on the social media, we are popular, and we seem to be successful. From a simple twitter post to day-today life activity and major life decisions, all depends on the response on the social media.

Today, the likes determine if the picture posted was good enough or not, allowing us and our choices to be judged by everyone.

It's natural for individuals to be appreciated in life. But today's changing times have created a different level of validation.

The one that is eye appealing and one that is trending on the social media have become the most validated. It has become a day-to-day validation of an individual's life, how they start their day to what they eat to even bathroom updates.

It's mostly the teens who are most negatively affected by social validation. Teens, especially girls, feel the pressure to be perfect in outlook and outfit.

Similarly, the rating of others' success stories, while giving you inspiration, might belittle your achievements.

Validation might result in emotional trauma. So you gulp down the capsule of confidence to fight your emotional demons.

The built-in pressure is so high that one tries to do anything to be the focus, but when it fails, frustration and anger come to haunt you.

Let us rise above these everyday social validations and live life fully. Technology is for the convenience of people, let it not complicate our lives.

Once you are able to live the reality, the feeling of inadequacy, incompetence and incompleteness will simply evaporate.

Let us enjoy technology, but let it not be an index to measure how good or bad we are.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 25, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.