Stunting for Social Media?

Ahhhh prom season.  I fondly remember my prom even though it was a long, long time ago.  It was a great time to celebrate with high school friends, and I truly felt like a princess.  In the months leading up to my prom, I counted down the days, and pictured how that day would be, how my hair would look, and so on.  I wanted everything to be perfect. 

My parents rented a Town Car with a driver; there was no way they were going to let two teenagers drive off by themselves.  On the day of my prom, I was quite surprised and happy to see a limousine pull up; unbeknownst to me, my parents had “upgraded” my ride as a surprise.  Overall, it was a great evening and one that I will forever remember. 

Here’s the thing.  I am grateful that my parents could afford to do what they did.  Had they not been able to afford it, they would not have done it.  And of course, social media was not a thing back then, so unless your friends and family came to your house to see you off, they would see the photographs later, once you got them developed.  Wow, I am really aging myself.  But I digress.

Fast forward to today and some of the prom send offs that I have seen on social media have been nothing short of a movie premier or the likes of the Met Gala.  I have seen prom couples drive off in rented Bentleys, Lamborghinis and more, to which I say, if you can afford it, go for it.  The problem to me, comes in when people put themselves in debt for such an event simply to stunt on social media.  Why?  One word; competition.  Once that prom is over you still have rent or mortgage due along with other bills. 

Now I know what you might be thinking; it’s none of your business how people choose to spend their money.  I completely agree.  In fact, I wrote an entire blog article about it entitled “Mind Your Own Pockets” which you can read here.  While it is true that I cannot tell anyone what to do with their money, just like they cannot tell me what to do with mine, I am also of the opinion that going broke just to stunt on social media for people that in all honesty could care less about you, is futile.

If it is something you can afford and genuinely want to do it, then go for it.  Some people, knowing they cannot afford to do something will still nonetheless go into debt just to impress other people, and then start a gofundme page the next day.  Make it make sense.  While we can all choose how to spend our money how we see fit, it would behoove us, especially in today’s economy, to consider what we are spending our money on, and why.  If we are only spending money on something and putting ourselves in debt simply to impress others, perhaps we should reconsider.