Social Media in Wanderlust Writing Assignment

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Social Media in Wanderlust
Most people especially millennials have become obsessive with their image online, and many of them are doing everything to perfect their life on social media. Social media has become a designation where most of them shed their lives and wear a new one perfect in its presentation. Some have tried extremities in their pursuit to outdo others in the same and attempted many things some of which have cost them irreparable damage to their lives. There is a cold competition of the most ‘perfect’ depiction of self on the social media platforms, and most people have been investing to win in this unwinnable game. Rather, they have created a new trend of wanderlust. Wanderlust is (Cambridge dictionary) is the wish to travel far away and to many different places. Travelling has become the infinite source of pictures to post on social media after extensively exhausting what is ‘postable’ of our lives. As more people become addicted to likes, comments, and growth of followership on social media, wanderlust has exploded, and the pursuers of its glory coined many justifications for it. The key motivations for the ever-increasing wanderlust amongst many people are fear of missing out, heavy advertising and promotion of beautiful destinations, and seeking admission to a higher social class on social media platforms.
The fear of missing out (FOMO) has become the leading motivation to influence people to become wanderlusters. Most people ‘fear’ being left out on some experiences and they often go to great lengths to ensure they have had the experience. Other people want the experience to outdo their peers, friends, family in the experiences they have had or in the very least have a similar experience. According to CITATION Eri16 \l 1033 (E. Barker), ‘when you’re caught in the loop of FOMO you tune out the real world and tune in to the fake one.’ Since it is humanly impossible to experience a experiences, the individual who does not want to miss out find himself/herself in a never-ending pursuit of these experiences. These individuals who have been bugged with FOMO and are frequent social media users find nearly all destination enticing and worth of travel. Whenever social media users log into their social media accounts and see and or read what their friends have done, they also want to do the same. They want to belong to the exclusive club of the people who visited ‘this and that’ place.
The fear of missing out creates a need out of a desire to copy what another person did and most people’s choice to travel is to ensure they are not left out. Social media posts have a commonality of trying to show off to ones’ peers and show how good your life is. FOMO is driven by the awareness of favorable and self-relevant experiences taking place in one’s surroundings CITATION Hay16 \p 468 \l 1033 (Hayran, Anik and Gürhan-Canli 468). Everyone wants the glory of being at the top or at least not being the only person who has nothing to show for his or her life. Travelling is now less driven by individual desires of exploration and having fun, but the instagrammaility of the destination. According to CITATION And181...