Having to compete in more than one arena has become a tiresome activity. At one point in time, all we had to worry about was how people saw us in real life.

Now it has been pushed to virtual reality. We are being forced to stay conscious of the persona we create online.

No pictures with red solo cups, short shorts or a party scene being displayed in the background are supposed to be posted. Otherwise our future employer will think certain things about us. Certain things like we actually have a social life.

I’m sure employers can recall the times in college when they went out with their friends and got blasted, but back then, there was no way of showing it. They did not have to abide by the rule of “pictures or it didn’t happen.”

Without pictures, then what happened obviously was a lie because there is no proof of the activity ever occurring; this sense of reality sucks.

This rule has made Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and many other social media sites consume our daily lives just because it is a way to prove ourselves. They are also what we use to fulfill our need to interact with others when we aren’t physically around them.

Constant notifications flashing across the screen count as the forms of interaction that we need on a day-to-day basis— they all connect back to these social media platforms but a lack of notifications plagues our minds.

It makes us believe that we are doing something wrong. Maybe our tweet wasn’t original enough or the Instagram caption was just too dull.

Some users even say there is a specific time to post pictures to receive the most likes— It’s 8 p.m. or later if you were curious.

We are able to see where people have traveled and how many famous people they have run into while out and about. But then we start to reflect on our own lives and see that we are just ordinary. We have not traveled to Hawaii, gone skydiving or met the Beckham family.

Although it is just a tiny screen that we all are trying to live through, it seems we are doing a miserable job at it.

Elizabeth Ernster can be reached at [email protected] or @Liz_Ernster on Twitter.