My Life on Social Media
I opened my first social media account when I was in High School. Ironically enough my first social media account was Snapchat. I was the type of kid that did not want to be on Facebook becasue of all the drama, so many people were being cyber-bullied, slut-shamed or abused in other ways by the cespool that is Facebook is. I never got Twitter either, I thought the whole idea of tweeting was the dumbest thing ever. I never got Instagram because I did not think I had anything good to post. I only got snapchat because my best friend made me an account and said “it was time I stopped being a grandpa and just join something already.” So that’s what I did. Until then the most social thing I had was Xbox Live and let me tell you that was an ordeal in itself. I was constantly being called a “fag” and other slurs by random children. That was a huge wakeup call for me and gave me a taste at 13 of what to expect once joining a bigger platform. So I never did until university.
I always made sure to practice good social media “standards” I guess for lack of a better term. I never got involved with online drama or anything close to that, because I just wanted to have a normal High School experience without the need to constantly be doing shit on Facebook or worrying about that. I just wanted to worry about being a kid, I wanted to live me life and enjoy the sights. I saw how social media was affecting the kids around me back then. It was causing some of them to want to kill themselves, become anorexic or even worse. I knew I didn’t want that at all. Sure, I may or may not have become essentially a social media hermit but oh well. I would argue that keeping my mental health in tact is a lot more important that being “cool”. That is what helped me survive high school and be able to keep my sanity in check while others deteriorated.
I think looking back on it I would not have done anything differently. I’m happy that I chose to wait to get things like Facebook or Instagram. My mental health greatly benefitted because of that and I think that’s the best part about it. I got to be a kid. I got to enjoy my childhood. If I could write a letter to my past self, I think the only think I would say would be like “invest in Bitcoin” or something like that. However, I think I would just tell him to stay true to himself and do what he thinks is going to be right. Social media is like trial by fire, it’s one of those things you have to experience on your own. No amount to preperation is going to deal with it, you just got to take every day as it comes and just enjoy it. Social media can be a wonderful place and there is no reason to be frightened by it or scared. This is future and I would tell me past self to embrace it and have fun.
