Social Media…Young Me VS Future ME! Did Social Media destroy me or did it make me stronger against all the bullshit? #pastme #socialmediacons #consideredendingitallatonepoint

“Hello Social Media my old friend, I’ve come to jack into you again”………..ok bad joke I know but anyway, onto the post:

Dear 14 year old me,

At October 2008, you will join social media for the first time. You will find it amazing but you won’t get addicted yet because of your limitations in resources. But that will change as you get older. You will become obsessed just like the rest of the world, and it will have its pros and cons, easier communication with the world but will alter who we are as civilized people. Stupidity will increase on the internet and people will use it to spread unnecessary hate (i.e SJWs and Feminists). That being said, you will learn how to survive in the digital world known as the internet. Social Media will make certain things worse like interactions, our people skills, bullying will evolve to cyber-bullying, people will turn to hypocrites, stupid people will have platforms to talk nonsense (stay the HELL AWAY FROM TUMBLR), morality will decrease. There will come a time where you will be a victim of cyber bullying yourself. At this time your depression has already started, and it will only get worse with cyber bullying. You will hate everything about you, your body, your personality, your weirdness, you will question why you are who you are. You will consider ending your own life for a brief period of time. But you will heal eventually. DON”T DO IT. You will develop a mentality where if you kill yourself, you give your enemies the satisfaction, and so you choose to stay in this world and endure the bullshit. The depression will never truly go away but you will become a better person because of it. You will heal with only moments of weakness every now and then. Eventually you will learn to live with evil in the world because it will increase but by then you will be stronger. Just to give you a better idea of what you will go through, here’s my first draft of a manifesto…..

Here we go:

Social Media. It’s amazing how much the internet has grown since then. I remember back when I was a teenager the internet was a sparingly used thing. not many people joined a lot of social media sites. It was the time when myspace was a thing and Facebook was just starting to be popular because it was originally exclusive to University students but then became more of a public domain.

I remember the first social media site I ever joined (aside from hotmail because that is email) was Facebook. I remember back in grade 8 more and more of my classmates were talking about Facebook more and more. Before that I didn’t really give a shit about social media because I didn’t exactly have any good reason to check it out. And on top of that I never had internet at home (We didn’t get home internet until 3 years ago lol) and also I didn’t own my own laptop at the time. The only way I could access the internet then was the library and my grandma’s house to use my uncle’s internet. But anyway, I joined Facebook at around late 2008. I finally made my account and started looking through the social media site, familiarizing myself with the way it works. It wasn’t long before I started finding my friends and people I knew. I started adding people and it wasn’t long before a few requests were approved. It’s funny but I even remember the first person I ever had a Facebook chat with. It was a 12th grader from my school. Her name was Amanda (I forget what her last name was). It was funny because I wasn’t that close with her but I decided to message her first because I picked the first one on my list to message. It was an interesting experience at the time to talk to someone without them being there.

Time passes and I’m interacting more and more on Facebook. But since I didn’t have my own laptop, I didn’t exactly use it often, which was good because my obsession with Social Media was repressed for a time plus my depression at the time only grew the more I used it. Grade 9 comes. This grade required me to have a computer and before I knew it, my Mom got me my first ever laptop (and first phone, but it wasn’t smartphone). Aside from schoolwork, I start going on social media more often. Since my laptop gave me more frequent access I became more into Facebook. However, I still didn’t have internet at home so it never exactly turned into an obsession (however I did go on it during class when I wasn’t suppose to). I was a victim of social media at the time. I hated myself. But little did I know things were going to get better and I will learn to deal with the internet’s bullshit.

More time passes by and I notice that things are starting to change with our interactions. I start texting my friends more often, Social Media is becoming more of a popular thing. It was a good way to keep in touch with people after school ended and a good way to find each other before hangouts. Years pass by and by then Social Media continues to grow into a big element in society, businesses, media, etc. 2010 Twitter blows up and we have a simpler and lazy way to get our news and share small jokes and mindless thoughts to others. A year later Instagram blows up and we now have a platform for sharing photos with the world. Vine then shortly has a small amount of fame. Social Media sites are appearing here and there and the world is becoming consumed by social media. At this point it is late 2012 and I finally get my first smartphone, an iPhone 5. It was so cool having the internet and all other resources in the palm of my hand. The problem was it turned me into a huge consumer of social media. It affected my life in both good and bad ways. It was all overwhelming. I wish I could say I conquered the obsession with Social Media but to this day I still go on it often (though I’m getting better at controlling myself with other sites). 2013 I graduated high school and got accepted into Ryerson University’s New Media Program. I start University and I’m excited and scared. The funny thing about my program is that it is really heavy on Social Media so it is now impossible to avoid social media and the internet overall because it’s a huge part of New Media. But regardless, you learn more and more about the internet, you learn how to use technology to make art, to further yourself in your new passion for media and for things like photography and film. It’s funny, at this point the world has turned into a society that feeds itself on Social Media. All promotion, news, movies, music, businesses, everything revolves around social media now. We can no longer escape it. I’ve talked about the cons a lot but it does have pros. It is so much easier to access content, easier communication with celebrities and loved ones……um…..ok so there’s more cons than pros but I’m still optimistic lol.

I’m gonna end the manifesto here.

So younger me, I’m going to say this. I’m not saying you have to avoid social media all together. I’m only saying to be careful of the dangers of social media. It will open a door of many possibilities for you but will also find ways to test you if not destroy you. Social Media will help you attain your future career. You will develop a passion for the Film Industry and social media will help you there. Stay strong man. You have a long journey ahead of you and it won’t be easy. Don’t end it.

See this? This is you in 7 years. You will improve and you will suffer and be broken in many ways but you will keep getting up and standing up to the haters.

Stay true to yourself and never let go of who you are. Keep learning. Never stop your passions either because you will eventually stop practicing one skill (Music, cello, drawing, etc) and you will regret it. Peace out you dam bastard!!!! LOL

Sincerely,

21 year old me.