Social Media Has Made Me Older

Apparently I joined Twitter in July 2009. So that means I’ve been a member for 7 years exactly. Seven years ago I was 14 about to start my first year of high school. It’s crazy how time flies. In 2009 I started high school and now I’m about to graduate college. It’s fascinating how social media is streamlining time. What do I mean by that? So I’ve been on Twitter for quite awhile (you could say), but I’ve been Facebook even longer. I have a history on Instagram and I just recently started getting into SnapChat (I’m late, I know). That means I have documented my life some one way or another since the days of middle school (for me). Now think of the kids these days. (I say kids like I’m old…). My digital lifespan began around late elementary to middle school. These days, they start at day one for so many children and they don’t even know it. Moms and dads taking photos or videos and sharing them on their social media accounts. When the child is old enough, they’ll make their own accounts and post their own content. Who knows what kind of social media platforms are going to dominate in the next 10 to 20 years?

Not only does social media allow you look at yourself in the past, but it also connects you with the past and present of other people in your life or were in your life at some point. The whole idea of social media is to connect you with other human beings. You see their posts, reposts, retweets, and so on. People who you knew well in the past are now strangers in the present, but you’ll always know what’s going on in their lives because of we’ve evolved to connect with social media.

I’m getting older and that’s obvious. You are too (duh…unless you’re Benjamin Button, you might want to hide from the government). Based on society’s standards however, I’m still considered young. I just entered my roaring twenties you could say. Recently though, I saw posts on my Facebook of a person I knew who just got married and another couple that just got engaged. I knew the person who got married since high school and I grew up with the couple since pre-k and elementary school. All these people I knew them in one context, and now I’m going to see them a brand new one. They’re going to start new chapters in their lives, because marriage is always a new adventure.

I saw all the comments and likes and congratulations this couple was getting and a lot of them were from people I went to elementary, middle, and high school with. These are people I don’t speak to anymore and rarely ever see (unless I bump into them on campus, which is very rare). And that’s weird to me. These are people that I went to school with, talked with, had classes with, played sports with. I wasn’t necessarily close with many people in high school (only a few), but a big part of my life I was around these people, and now it’s not anymore. It’s not like I regret not keeping in touch with them. Everyone has their own direction and sometimes they drift away from others. We grow, we evolve, and that includes who we interact with. Social media has just provided this opportunity for you to take a peak into the lives of those who use to be involved in yours. It reminds me, my sister recently went to lunch with old college friends. These are people she hasn’t seen for over ten years. But because of social media and email, they were all able to connect once again. Now they’re thinking of making it an annual thing!

In a lot of ways, I don’t really know what to say about this. My mind is all over the place. It makes me think…real life is going to start soon. What am I saying, real life has already started, but I’m still trying to register all the information that I’m taking in. Social media, it does that to you.