A Letter to Wee Little Me: Social Media Escape
Hummm, well, so, right… I have always had a love-hate relationship with social media, now that I look back on the past nine years of my life. But, it isn’t as dramatic as you might think… I just think that my life has been ruled by seeking some sort of solace in social media, whatever kind of new or archaic form that was for me at any point in life. I’ve spent so much time on the internet and social media, treating it as my place of escape, yet it has also become a source of some of my miseries, woes, fears, anxieties, sadness, anger,… you name it. And one of the ways I get away from those feelings is by continuing to use social media, becoming an ugly cycle. However, the stress I got from social media wasn’t exactly rooted in the amount of likes and recognition I get; at least, it doesn’t completely sway my state of mind. It was probably more so the pressure and anxiety of being liked for how I was seen on Facebook or MSN Messenger (nostalgiaaaa), constantly wanting to show how ‘cool’ or ‘unordinary’ I was. I mean, the things I shared were things I truly liked (and still like; mostly), but… the way I went about it was quite cringe-y. Though, what do you expect from a 11 to 13-year-old ?
So, little 11 to 13-year old Amber, I won’t pretend to tell you that your dependence on and addiction to consuming social media content has been managed too well up to now— nay, the personal feelings for doing so may have even gotten worse — however, I will tell you some things that may help you mitigate them (if you listen).
First off, start thinking of other important life things, such as a (very) general direction you want to take in the future, since you are starting high school at thirteen or so. Look, I know that is very nerve-wracking and scares you to a point of near paralysis (still does, oops), but getting this in your mind early on will make this topic less detrimental to your health (erm, don’t quote me on that). Stop using social media, just for once — just for a sec — to think about where you wanna head in life. Recognise that you are using social media as a distraction and as an escape from important thoughts like this, that you should stop burying your head in the computer and believing that seeing and watching all this great stuff will make your nagging sense of fear and dread go away. Harsh, but true. You’re still struggling with this, so think about this now.
Also, limit your social media time and please stop worrying about impressing people online. I know, you aren’t destroyed when someone doesn’t acknowledge you at all on Facebook, but making statuses and commenting on them as if you were talking to yourself because you had a conversation in your head that you thought was funny and that people would like is kind of embarrassing. Yeah, you realised that after someone commented something like “o_O”, making you feel that they hated you. Just, please don’t get so worked up over little things, it’s not good stressing over how you think people perceive you online. Truthfully, they probably don’t even care about you, unless you’ve wronged them somehow. What matters of course is how you view yourself. Don’t accept friend requests from people you barely know, accepting just to be nice. It’s OK if you reject it ! You don’t need another person who you probably don’t really care about acting as another phantom you need to consider or impress while posting on social media.
You have lost much time and potential productivity by choosing social media over everything else. I know you’re struggling with and using social media to get away and forget about the difficult feelings that are just beginning to surface but… If you just have a think about your future self and discipline a moderate level of self-control with it, then these feelings won’t have to be (too) out of control over the next nine years.
