12 Songs About Social Media
Social media is basically an internet-based form of communication that allows its users to have conversations, create web content and share information. Social media has its benefits such as allowing one to communicate with friends and family on a personal level while on a professional level it allows you to broaden your knowledge in a particular field and build a professional network.
Below is a list of songs that touch on the topic of social media.
1. Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion
This song may seem like it is about a failed love affair but it is about the pitfalls of living in the age of social media. Lady Gaga expresses her disillusionment with the glossy, highly constructed version of themselves that different social media users project to their followers. She wants the song to be a vision for people to re-establish genuine human connections.
Lady Gaga added that there are a lot of things on the internet that are not real and people are pressured to keep that personal illusion going on in their real lives. The song is about raging against it and letting it go.
2. Madison Beer – Dear Society
This is a single released on April 17, 2019. Madison stated that is about social media and how our society perceives and is perceived. She uses the metaphor of a relationship with a toxic person to personify social media and the way she is perceived in society.
Tar on the lips of society has been used to symbolize all the toxic aspects of being in the public yes such as hateful social media comments or negative media perception. She also compared social media to cigarettes to emphasize how social media can be addictive and unhealthy.
3. Gym Class Heroes – New Friend Request
The song is off the album As Cruel As School Children which was released in 2006. The song basically just talks about the singer’s online interaction with a new girl on MySpace, which was the most popular social media platform. He first friend requested the girl but she ignored him. He then decided to send a message but she didn’t reply for 4 weeks. Just as he was about to give up, she sent him a message and this to him was a great sign of a potential relationship.
4. Bebe Rexha – Baby, I’m Jealous
This is the first single by Bebe Rexha’s second album Better Mistakes. It is about how the artist felt when she found out that her boyfriend was liking pictures of other girls on Instagram.
The inspiration for the song was from a real-life story. She was dating this guy whom she thought was doing shady stuff on the internet and she got jealous of the girls that he liked the pictures of.
5. Olivia Rodrigo – Jealousy Jealousy
The track is about the unrealistic standards society has set for young people mostly on social media. Olivia sings about the constant comparison and self-hatred that is happening on social media. The feeling of seeing other girls’ beauty brings on an additional weight on her back which means she feels the additional pressure to live up to those standards.
Olivia wrote the song at a time when she was borderline addicted to social media and she just felt crippled by the comparisons.
6. J Cole – Photograph
The track primarily describes J Cole finding a girl’s picture on social media and trying to use his tactics to get her. He also sings about how in the era of Instagram people get obsessed with someone attractive without knowing anything about them.
He also analyzes how society is affected by social media such it taking a toll on romantic, personal and professional relationships. The constant need to click refresh takes up the precious time that would have been used for physical interaction. Social media these days can be seen as a drug.
7. Katy Perry – Save As Draft
Katy, in this song, wants to use Twitter to convey her struggles and to say what she has on her mind to her lover but changes her mind. She realizes that it’s better to let things stay as they are rather than reopening the wound so she decides to save it as a draft.
The song is from the album Witness which was released in 2017.
8. Brad Paisley – Selfie
This is a track from the album Love and War which was released on April 2017. It pokes fun at people’s obsessions with their phones, at the time, mainly taking selfies and then sharing the pictures via social media.
Brad’s main message is how people post photos they shouldn’t share on the internet, forgetting that for the most part things may remain on the internet forever. We should make think twice before posting some things online.
9. Brad Paisley – Online
The song is from the album 5th Gear released in 2007. Brad sings about how he is able to like a fake life on the internet by creating a fake persona that is attractive to women. He is able to chat with different women at the same time and achieve a cool factor that he struggles to get in real life.
Brad gets so ingrained in cyberspace that he views his own attributes as stats in a video game. Despite having an amazing online persona, he still finds it hard to keep a girlfriend for any extended period of time.
10. Soulja Boy – Kiss Me Thru The Phone
Soulja Boy sings about how he uses social media to show affection to his lover since they currently can’t be together due to physical distance. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2009.
11. Sam Hunt – Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90s
Sam Hunt remembers telephones on the walls and relationships before the coming of social media. He reminisces about how much the world has changed because of them. Back in the 90s when one broke up with someone there was very little to remind the person of their ex but currently, with social media, it is so easy for your ex to pop up on your newsfeed. Sam is tired of seeing pictures of his ex since it just brings up feelings of being hurt.
12. Green Day – Oh Yeah!
This is the third single off Green Day’s Bulletproof Backpack album. It goes ahead to criticize the state of America and its obsession with social media. It also touches on the topic of gun violence in the country.