A letter to my pre-social media self
Dear 12-year old self,
You’re about to discover something that is going to change your life. For better or for worse? That’s for you to decide. It will make you happy, it will make you sad. This life changing thing is called Social Media.
First you’re going to discover Twitter, and you will have a lot of life-changing experiences on Twitter. You’ll learn some life lessons. The most important one being — don’t tweet something you wouldn’t say in real life. Trust me when I say it can ruin friendships.
You’re going to go through many fan-girl obsessions. From YouTubers to Boybands there will be MANY obsessions. And to be honest you will always deep down be a bit of a fan-girl. Yes… even when you’re 20. Twitter will be a BIG part of your teenage years. At one point your parents will essentially have an intervention for you because you tweet too much. At your peak you will have about 3,500 followers but eventually you get over twitter and most of the things you fan-girl about (except One Direction… that was not a phase).
By the time you’re 20, twitter will the social media you use to see updates on breaking news, pass the time when you’re in a waiting room, or find sick memes.
Next you’re going to discover Facebook. I know you think you have to hide your account from your mom… but you don’t. She really doesn’t care if you have Facebook. You’re going to use facebook to communicate with your “boyfriend”. You’ll notice I put boyfriend in quotations. That is because he is not your boyfriend… You’re 12 for Pete’s sake. But you’ll ‘poke’ him and write weird things on his wall because apparently that’s what you think a relationship is. I’m also going to warn you… when you’re 17 you are going to experience your most embarassing momment via Facebook. And I’m not gonna lie it’s gonna sting for a LONG time. My advice to you when using Facebook is check who you’re sending the screenshot to… before you send it. But Facebook isn’t all bad… it lets you stay in touch who are really important to you like all your camp friends on the other side of the country, and all your friends at different universities when you get there.
Finally… (and this is a big one) you discover YouTube. Actually you’ve known about YouTube for a few years already but you’re about to really discover it. Yes, YouTube has more to offer than “How to be Emo” . I know shocking… but it’s true!! YouTube is going to give you a creative outlet which in the next few years is going to be very important. It’s going to help you discover your passion. Which no is not One Direction but making content and making people laugh. You’ll make some really good videos and you’ll make some REALLY bad videos. But the important thing is you’re being creative and learning to express yourself. My advice to you when using YouTube is create the content that YOU want to see and not what others want to see. That way you’ll always be creating the most authentic and best content. Oh and don’t be too upset when you don’t become YouTube famous. You’ll get through it. :)
So that is just a taste of this new thing in your life. Overall I would say enjoy real life and don’t focus too much about what’s happening on social media. Yes it is important and creating social media content will in fact be a job of yours one day (I know crazy right?) but living in the moment is more important.
Good luck Jules. Be smart and be creative.
Love,
20-year old self.
