When I am scrolling through my Instagram and Twitter feeds, I’ve recently noticed that I follow a lot of people I do not know — sometimes on purpose.

I follow celebrities so that I can see what they are up to and stay up to date with my favorite television stars.

Many social media platforms are a great way to share ideas and photos — I definitely post whenever I think of something funny or want to share a cute photo.

However, what is bad about following people we do not personally know, namley celebrities, is that it gives off a false sense of reality — it makes us think that we know them.

It makes us think that we are a part of their lives, even though we don’t really know anything personal about them. It gives us the idea that we know these people when, in reality, we do not.

Now there is nothing wrong with wanting to follow people you look up to or think are funny, but I’ve realized that these are people that I don’t even know. I think I know them, but I really just make assumptions based on what they tweet about or share through a photo.

Social media allows us to connect with people in many ways and it is a useful tool for many different things, but it is also a dangerous platform as well.

These platforms set up a pathway between celebrities and their fans, which sometimes gets abused.

We have all heard about those crazy Twitter accounts that spam celebrities so that they get “noticed.”

Fans abuse their accounts to serve as a tool to reach out to celebrities.

These sites and apps allow celebrities to be perceived as accessible within an instant and people get personally offended when their favorite celebrity does not give them a shoutout.

We think we know someone’s life story because of the photos they share or that we understand who they are based on some tweets, but the reality is that social media shows people putting their best foot forward.

We do not get the entire picture of who someone is based on their various accounts.

I want to keep in mind that just because I follow someone on social media, that does not mean I actually know them.