A Letter to My Younger Self
Dear little Erica,
Listen kid, social media is going to take over your life in an instant and will most likely affect a lot of important things. It’ll affect your social skills, your sleep schedule, your homework and grades, your relationships and love life, and even your way of thinking/perspective on certain events. In fact, it’ll take over a lot of people’s lives, some for the better and some for the worst.
You’re partially an addict, there’s no denying it. Remember all that time you spent playing that stupid mmorpg game Maplestory? You spent a whole summer killing mushrooms on your computer, and for what? Just to reach the next damn level so you can do it all over again? Well, social media is going to be your new Maplestory. It won’t replace video games though. I should know since I’m 22 and still playing GTA V, trying to save up all the money from heists so I can buy that dope flying DeLorean.
But there will be a point in your life where you’ll get just as addicted to social media as you did with Maplestory. It’ll come to the point where you’re so concerned about the number of likes you get on a certain post, that you’ll be hurt and disappointed if you don’t get the number you were expecting. The good news is, you won’t stay addicted for long. The bad news is, you go back to video games.
There’s no doubt social media will have a lasting impact on your life. Even if you’re not as addicted to it later on in your life, it’ll still affect your life. There’ll be something called a dating app, and there are quite a few you try out. In fact, you’ll find your first love on one of them, but she’ll end up breaking your heart. It sucks. The good thing is, you’ll find a best friend on there. One who won’t hesitate to help you out when you need it the most.
Social media will change what you expect from certain people, as in this day and age, it’s all about the instantaneous. Immediate replies, instant gratification from likes and comments, videos and ads that capture your attention right away, etc. It’s all about the now and social media will affect the time you think it takes for things to arrive. For example, you’ll get impatient and a little angry if a friend doesn’t respond to your text within an hour. You’ll need to work on that by realizing people have lives too and are doing more important things. They’ll eventually reply…unless they’re someone you matched with on a dating app. You’ll ghost a lot of people, but you’ll be ghosted back by just as many (ouch).
You’ll also be feeling a lot of FOMO when you browse social media feeds. But you have to remind yourself that people mostly only post the highlights of their lives on social media.
The only advice I have to give you is that there’s more to life than social media platforms. You’ll have to learn to disconnect and focus on your own life. There’ll always be more to life than likes and comments on your posts. To practice “safe social”, you’ll need to remind yourself that you’re only seeing glimpses of people’s lives on social media. It’s okay to be jealous of others, but you don’t know what their lives are like and what they had to do to get there.
Focus on yourself. Work for what you love. Get the most out of life and get out there and see the world.
After all, you can’t fully experience life just through your laptop and phone screens (I mean you can try, but that’s not a life you want to live).
Love,
Future Erica
