Life on Social Media: A Letter to My Younger Self
Dear Caroline,
At 10 years old, little do you know that opening up your Facebook account will be the beginning of a whole new virtual world for you. I know it will be an exciting moment and that you feel ready to start sharing your life online, but boy are you in for a wild ride. First, on Facebook you’ll find it incredibly entertaining and necessary to update your status at every waking moment, as well as playing FarmVille for 6 hours a day, but no it will not be all fun and games. Your experiences of being bullied will be amplified on this site. You‘ll receive messages that will make you cry and wonder why people want to hurt you so bad — but don’t let those words knock you down. You must let someone know about that online harassment and understand that times will get better — I promise. Here is a Facebook help page discussing this matter, which I think you should also read. Once you get older, Facebook will just become a place for you to interact with your peers for group projects, and not much else.
When you turn 11, Twitter will be your new thing. The fact that you could now keep up with your favourite celebrities and actually attempt to talk to them (AKA send them 4000 tweets) will fascinate you. Moreover, Twitter will be the platform that amplifies your idolization of Justin Bieber from ages 12–16, as this will be your main way of staying up to date on his life and communicating with your fellow beliebers — but please don’t think that those individuals are your ‘friends’. Remember that you don’t actually know them, and that anyone could hide behind a screen posing as another 12-year-old girl crazy about the Biebs. I know you will be smart about this, but I just want to make this clear. However, you’ll eventually get over this ‘fan-girl’ stage of your life, as it will become quite evident to you that tracking the life of a boy that has no idea who you are is most certainly unproductive and unnecessary. You will begin to use Twitter more occasionally after that phase is over, as well as follow a larger variety of accounts, which will be a much healthier experience for you — trust me.
At 15, you’ll create your own Instagram account. It will become your favourite way to stay up to date with your friends, family, and fav celebrities through photos and brief videos. However, you have to remember that Instagram just shows the highlight reel of peoples’ lives, so please take everything you see on your feed with a grain of salt. Don’t waste your time agonizing over your looks because you don’t have that super model body that Kendall Jenner has. It’s not worth it! Also, don’t put your self-worth into the hands of others. If you love a photo you posted, don’t just delete it because it didn’t get as many likes as you were expecting. Own that selfie and hold your head high. In general, you will notice that agonizing over pictures posted of ourselves will become such an epidemic in society, but try to stop when you notice yourself doing it (because I know it will happen😞) — you’ll definitely be much happier if you don’t. Additionally on the topic of confidence, don’t fall victim to FOMO (which means “fear of missing out”, if you don’t know). I know that scrolling through your feed and seeing all of the parties people posted from, that you were not invited to, will be difficult. However, who cares about them? You’ll have a great group of friends, and partying won’t be your thing anyway.
In grade 11 (16 years old), you will open up a Snapchat account. This will not be your favourite platform, but you’ll use it anyway as a way to send funny pictures of yourself to your friends. This will pretty much be the extent of your use of Snapchat. However, make sure your account is on private from the start. Please just save yourself from those unknown snaps from people you don’t know.
So, I have just given you, younger Caroline, a brief run-down on what your social media journey will be like on the major sites you’ll be on. I just want to prepare you for what you’re up for and make sure you’re ready for it all — the good and the bad. I‘m confident you’ll also find my advice useful!
Now that this speech is all over and done with, go have fun! After all, social media was ultimately created for enjoyment and to connect with others.
Best wishes on your journey,
— 20 year old Caroline
