For many years now social media has been a catalyst for up and coming musicians all over the world. You read the stories about how Justin Bieber was discovered through YouTube, how Calvin Harris became famous because of Myspace, it’s no surprise that everyday millions upon millions of videos are uploaded to these platforms. Every musician wants to experience fame, and social media can give you a little taste of it. But social media is an extremely addictive drug and that little taste can get you hooked and wanting more.

One Ed Sheeran cover can get you 30 comments from friends and family that wouldn’t even say hello to you on the street. 50 likes from people who don’t actually listen to it because they’re too busy scrolling and liking every post on their feed, and 100 friend requests off people from countries you can’t even pronounce trying to sell you shit. All day your phone keeps buzzing with notifications and you go to bed that night feeling like a superstar.

Now you’ve got the taste you want more. So you do another post and this time share it into groups so you can get more likes, more shares and even more comments. The phone is going crazy so you start doing two posts a day. Without realising it your completely hooked. Your so hooked your checking every ten minutes to see how many likes or views you’ve got. It consumes your entire day.

Each post is a new fix, every nice comment giving you that high. But like all drugs, keep taking it and your guaranteed a bad trip.

When you get so wrapped up in the world of social media you close off from reality. Your eyes have been looking at the screen for so long that you don’t even notice whats around you. Your more interested in comments than what people actually have to say. A love heart emoji becomes more comforting than an actual hug. Your friends and family get so sick of talking to the back of your phone, but you don’t care because your so dependent on people’s interactions on the content you post. When those interactions start to dwindle the world becomes an extremely lonely place.

It’s so easy to get trapped in that world surrounded by millions of posts from millions of people and feel so alone because, because it’s not real. It was never real. That Ed Sheeran cover was not real, it was just a video. Those likes were not real, it was just a button on a screen. Those comments were not real because they weren’t spoken.

If you can take your eyes off the screen, reality isn’t half as bad as that fake social media bullshit. At least it’s real.