illustrating the impact of Social Media on the modern black woman would require the unpacking of the chronological phases and changes we have grown through..
From being a Single mother of 6 kids-cooking and cleaning in the house of another woman in the
hopes of giving your own children a better future to help them escape our now history. To Awkwardly Merging into westernized living by fiercely attempting to rise out of our  background and leaving behind where we came from; yet struggling to let go of your stereotypically “black” and conservative mindset. And finally being relieved of those mind forged manacles and rising against the odds and realizing that “black woman, the world is your oyster” .. And it is at this stage of our lives that we are given reason to be more cautious than ever.

You see in the prior two stages, your options were limited: we were born with a struggle to fight and a goal to reach. Now you have been availed the opportunity to pick your own struggle with an endless amount of possibilities, this finally gives you the ability to dream out and design a luxurious lifestyle of fancy cars, prada bags, holidays in Bali and balmain clothes.

However, attached to finally believing that you have the freedom to attain anything you  want from life.. Comes the responsibility to you define and direct that belief as it will ultimately determine the type of woman you become.

What exactly am I getting at?

Given the opportunity to do whatever we want as a source of income, some black Women choose education and build towards careers such as doctors like our “Doctor breaking fashion borders”, Nandipha Sekeleni. Other black women decide to tap into their talents and creativity to become musicians, presenters, writers etc. like our very own Bonang Matheba. Other women become entrepreneurs of note, such as Palesa Mokubung..

All of whose successes are evident on Social media. We look at pictures of them Traveling to various countries, eating chrome tainted food on the golden sandy beaches of Mediterranean islands, posing in swimsuits that perfectly shape their gym toned curves. Leaving their young  female followers drooling from aspirations to be living a life of luxury – Hastily rushing towards the facade in the distance.

Unfortunately many of my black female counterparts are awakened by the reality that contrast the fantasy that they imagine as they scroll through their news feed. This is where the temptation, of those women who struggle to identify their talents or find it difficult to acquire an education, arises… We begin to turn to other means of attaining what we want, as easily and as quickly as possible.

Most commonly, we use our bodies to lure generally older men willing to spend on our young beauty.
We willingly block our minds of the possibility of him being a father and a husband to a family.
Adultery has lost its weight of sin.
We ignore the repetitive voices of our laboured mothers telling us to work for what we need and never rely on a man.. We disregard the pieces of our soul slowly being eaten away by each new pair of prada shoes
.. We become so overly consumed by the materialistic things life has to offer that we lose ourselves by becoming slaves to social media.

In conclusion, Social media has become the basis from which success is determined and is being used by young black women to Showcase a superficial lifestyle. This in attempt to emulate their favourite instagrammers or prove to society that they have finally “made it” and are already living the life everybody dreams of.

The question we forget to ask ourselves in the midst of all the pictures we take to post on Instagram the next morning and the noise of all the compliments we get on how great we look.. Is whether this life is really worth all the trouble?