Dear Little Me,
Dear little me,
So, you’ve had some experience with social media now. Club Penguin and Webkinz definitely count, even though you may not think they’re very cool anymore. Gmail chat and MSN have developed your messaging skills (notice how I didn’t say perfected!) and Facebook is the coolest thing, right?
Well, don’t worry, just keep doing what your doing. Also, social media isn’t going anywhere so pace yourself. Try to enjoy it. Trust me, you’ll have plenty of time to try to get the best profile picture and the elementary school drama that follows you home from school with develop into high school drama that follows you home from school. You’re good, though. Your Facebook privacy settings are top notch and there have only been a couple of times when you’ve accepted a friend request from someone you might not, possibly, probably not, know in person 100%. I’m not here to tell you that you should stop using weird filters and stickers on your pictures, that you shouldn’t use messaging as an opportunity to talk to your crushes or that you should even stop Zoe from signing you up for a Twitter account. You’re good, you’re not terribly embarrassed, and you have enough sanity to revisit your past social media experiences.
At 21 you’re so close to graduating university, you’ve got amazing new friends, a nice job and, oh yeah, social media is still a thing. Like a big thing. (Also, you’ll discover YouTube but that’s a story for another day) I just want you to know that social media is a part of your life now and as much as it’s okay to be involved and share pictures and posts, it’s not your whole life. You’ve got a whole life to live outside of Facebook and Twitter and whatever else you find online. Social media has the power to take over the life that exists outside of it so just be careful, okay? Post your favourite pictures and chat with friends but don’t get hung up on likes and don’t have important conversations over the internet. If you do you’ll be missing out…and we both know how much you hate that. There are going to be times when this seems like an impossible task because social media can be that consuming but you just have to try your hardest to understand the bigger picture.
Social media provides us with the best spaces to share our thoughts, talk with friends, talk with strangers and be entertained. The power that it gives us is unrecognizable when compared with the life that we live outside of the platforms. What we do with that power and how we keep it from defining us is what’s important.
It will be confusing to watch how social media develops into what it has become now, and no doubt will continue to be as it develops into what it will become. There will be social media influencers and business transactions and advertisements that will swoop in to change the social media experiences that we have, for the worse and for the better.
You may have thought MSN was good and now Facebook is the biggest thing to hit your grade seven world but, trust me, bigger things are coming and you won’t believe how they will change your world. For now, though, just keep trying to perfect your profile picture (it’s hard, i know), make more plans to hang out with your friends in person and focus on being you.
Love, your future self xo
