Dear Love Princess,
Before getting to my letter to my younger self on advice for the future, did anyone have a Piczo account? Was that a hip thing here in Canada back when you were a toddler diving into the online world of social media? Well, it was all the rage in the Dominican Republic when I was growing up.
Crunch base said it best, “Piczo is a social networking and blogging website for teenagers”.
Actually, I was probably younger than a teenager when I created my site because I remember launching my Facebook account as a tween and of course, by then Piczo was “so yesterday”. I thought it was a pretty cool platform that mimicked what Facebook now does. However, Facebook clearly had the staying power while Piczo did not. Anyways…
Dear Love Princess,
Right now your MSN Messenger nickname probably still hasn’t changed from Love Princess to Sarah Keith, and that’s totally cool. Why? Because you’re still adorably young, innocent, and imaginative and having a nickname instead of your own name on IM is still considered “cool”. Boy oh boy, does the definition of cool ever change over the next few years.
Who am I? I’m your older self — the future-you that has gone through the many trends of social media and has seen which platforms have maintained that staying power. I don’t need to keep this short and sweet because I know your attention span hasn’t decreased yet. You may avert your focus for a couple of seconds if your elementary school crush reaches out to you on MSN Messenger, but I know you’ll come back and finish this letter.
First of all, I’m proud of you for being fearlessly curious about this digital era you’re just entering into. You’re only 12 years old and you already have an email and Piczo account. Though little do you know, this online world will only get more complex with other apps that meet your every need.
You want to share your perspective with the world? You’re going to sign up for an Instagram account where you share photos with your community. You want to update your community regularly throughout your day on what you’re doing? You’ll sign up for a Twitter account where you literally have room for 140 characters per “tweet” to get your message across to your audience. You want a central platform for both your tweets and Instagram posts to go to plus have the ability to stay in touch with friends and family around the world? Your Facebook account meets those needs. To top it all off, if the time you spend hanging out with your friends isn’t enough, you’ll soon be able to communicate with them by sending temporary pictures and videos that last a mere 10 seconds on a platform called Snapchat.
I’m probably overwhelming you, but this is the future and the best part is that each of these platforms will gradually come into your life so you will have time to jump on the bandwagon and get savvy with each one. All I want to do here is give you a glimpse into the future and give you a bit of advice that you’ll end up realizing in the future.
Right now life is simple. Mom and Dad give you a set amount of time to play online every night and I’m sure that time limit frustrates you. Trust them and their reasoning because in the future, social media will become addictive and you’ll want to give yourself those same limitations.
Right now you maintain a blogging website to interact with your friends on a different level. You’re also bouncing between MSN, Piczo, Club Penguin, and Runescape. Sure, you want to grow your number of followers and share your thoughts on your Piczo site, but I don’t think your main concern is how popular you are.
With every post you end up sharing in the future, always stay true to who you are. It sounds cliché but you would not believe the amount of fake content that is posted in the future. We call this the post-truth world, where nothing is ever what it appears to be. A selfie you’ll see online is probably the result of 100 different photos that took a long time to capture and decide on which to post. Social media has now become a place to show the world who we want to be rather than showing the world who we really are.
We need more innocent minds like yours here in the future that post for the sake of sharing your story, not for the purpose of collecting a high number of likes. I look back at our pictures from when I was your age and we were cute, dorky, and careless which really helped communicate our personality. Nowadays, society is too self-conscious about how they look in photos and will literally take down a memory just because it doesn’t “look good”. Isn’t that crazy?
The best advice I can give you is don’t change your path just because everyone else is. Love Princess, you are not a follower. You are a leader. You’re already exposed to the external pressures of fitting in, which probably has you wanting to compete with others to stay relevant and noticed, but you don’t need to change. I know you never did this growing up, but if you start seeing people post pictures with alcohol bottles to prove that they’re mature and cool, don’t follow in their footsteps. Reality check — they’re not cool and those kinds of posts will only hinder their reputation in the future.
Right now you may be questioning yourself because you’re not fitting in. Kids are mean and here’s a spoiler alert to make you feel better: In the future, karma does come back and bite them in the butt. Stay strong. It may not seem this way right now, but your uniqueness will pay off in the future. The right people will recognize, appreciate, and reward your genuine intentions. You’ll see.
I know you well because I am you. You’re an ambitious, sensitive, free spirited little girl that spends a lot of time with her parents and their friends. You’re already exposed to a mature perspective and because of that, I think you’ll be okay moving forward in life. Why? Those same adults you grew up around are still the same today. They don’t care whether their photos have a particular filter to it or whether their “good side” is showing. They care about sharing their lives with their community for the purpose of holding on to moments and staying in touch with those that may not live close.
You learned from these people, you took on their same values, and you’re still close with a lot of them today. I know you’ll appreciate this more so in the future, but sit back and reflect on it right now. If you really think about it, you’re one lucky little girl.
All I have to say is be proud that you get this opportunity right now to be around all this maturity that will play a major role in shaping your decision-making in the future. Trust the advice Mom and Dad give you because they know best. Those two people love you unconditionally and will forever have your back. With each social media platform you take on, be sure to share YOUR side of the story. Don’t be afraid to show your scars because each of them have an inspirational message behind them that can help someone that’s reading your post.
Use your social media powers for good, not evil.
Any-who, I’m off to study for my last few exams EVER. Spoiler alert again… you did it! You managed to make it to university, complete a degree in the field you’ve always been passionate about, and you’ve got a strong vision in mind for your future. Hang in there. Everything is going to be alright, Love Princess!
Love always,
P.s. Keep up the song lyric status updates on Facebook. I get a good kick out of them when I see it pop up every day on my memories.
