I remember it as if it were just yesterday, standing in the open green fields of my middle school campus, exhausted after running around. A girl brought her phone up to my face, showing me a blue and white page adorned with pictures and captions. Instagram, she called it. Sixth grade me believed this was the peak time for social interaction, so enticed, I downloaded the app. 
	I didn't see coming my new obsession with likes, comments and followers. As a young and eager conformer, I scrolled through endless feeds of colorful and vivid images. Soon, I found myself clicking only on pictures with lots of likes and to make it worse, double tapping the like button as well. What harm could looking through pictures possibly bring? Turns out, a lot.
	After spending enough time, the app conditioned me to believe that society only desired and accepted people with a certain amount of likes. I noticed a trend among all those popular pictures; they hinted towards the perfect skin tone, facial features and fashion style. In my mind, I began to divide the human population into two sides: ones accepted by society by fitting the standards, or those now considered outcasts for departing from what Instagram deemed perfect. I can confidently assume I was not the only one who felt this way. Everyone I knew began to discriminate. 
        The entire sixth grade started to divide into little cliques. Friend groups obviously existed before the Instagram fiasco, but soon, everyone separated into distinct groups: those who fit the Instagram aesthetic, those who tried but somewhat lacked, and lastly, those who did not wish (or were unable) to conform. The introduction of social media turned us into people who judged and discriminated based on looks. It may sound cliche, but we, the social media newcomers and sixth graders, started to only hang out or talk to certain people just because of their appearance. I even changed up my wardrobe to fit the current trends and formed entirely new friendships just to feel up-to-date with social media. If you asked a 12-year-old me about unity, I would have laughed at the joke. 
        I admit that social media did discourage me from befriending those who were different, but after spending hours on the app, I started to yearn for something different. I found myself clicking on random, less popular posts. They depicted a variety of diverse faces and stories. These weren’t the typical posts of the basic “Insta-girl” wearing Ivivva pants posing by the beach, yet I found them engaging. As if something sparked within me, I double tapped.
        I liked a picture of a girl fully embracing her ethnicity and culture, as if the world were under her toes. In her captions, she told her story: she was ostracized for not having the desired skin tone or name-brand outfit. Despite coming face-to-face with discrimination, she expressed words of encouragement for others like her, making me feel less alone. As if to add fuel to the fire, her picture perfectly depicted her diversity–her sun-kissed tan skin and her smile imbued with confidence. Her expression screamed bravery and courage, as if not even the tiniest bit swayed by the rude comments from the “haters”. I actually had a hard time comprehending this post. Why was she happy regardless of what happened? How could she be so confident about being different? After contemplating for a while, I realized it was absolutely possible and surprisingly normal for people to embrace diversity without dividing their communities.
	A lightbulb flashed in my mind; I had been doing everything wrong. I should not have separated people by their race, gender, looks or wealth. Instead, I should have focused on their inner beings, because in the end, we are all the same. I wish I recognized sooner how societal norms, warped by social media, have divided everyone. Stumbling upon this post changed my worldview, opening my eyes to social media’s capacity for good. However, not everyone has witnessed this, so some remain unchanged and biased.
        But it’s never too late. Social media has shifted how we view, judge, and differentiate. Especially now during quarantine, everyone relies heavily on technology, thus making them more prone to the negative impacts of social media. But maybe the heavy use of technology has an upside. For example, I managed to dispel my toxic mindset with the help of Instagram, which ironically, was the catalyst. I believe that if used correctly, technology and social media can actually unite people. Technology allows for the quick spread of information and if more pictures, blogs or videos about unity and inclusion exist, then people may gradually embrace the idea that humans can coexist as a whole, undivided into fragments that infringe upon our true selves.