The Digital experience

• Reflect on your experience of using social media from the time that you opened your first account. Think about how some of the common social media stressors (discussed in today’s lecture) have affected you. Knowing what you now know about the relationship between social media and mental health, write a letter to a younger version of yourself. Share predictions with your younger self about what your journey is going to be like, and leave yourself with advice on how to successfully navigate the rapidly-changing online world while practicing “safe social.”

I started using social media at the start of 4th grade. I was around 9 years old, the first thing I made was a facebook account but the weird part I had to make it in secret. I was in the school lab with some friends, it started out to join an online game but over the next few months it became a way to stay connected and become closer to friends. I remember having to minimize the tab everytime my parents came into the room, they didn’t want me to have a facebook account until I was older and now I understand why they were so strict. There would have been a lot I wouldn’t have understood at such a young age, but at that time when my twin sister ratted me out, my mother and older brother were very upset. They changed my password and I wasn’t allowed to touch it. After a lengthy argument, finally I was able to use it at certain times with their permission. They would login for me and I would have an allotted amount of time to use the account and it caused me to fight with my twin sister for the next few weeks but ultimately I took over my account again. When I was older, thinking about it now, all the dangers of social media I didn’t know about could have caused major issues.

As I used social media through my teenage years and even now, I noticed a lot after few years, anxiety over certain conversations, staying up late and messing up my sleep cycle, taking my phone everywhere, using it almost constantly and and developing “fomo” the fear of missing out and I haven’t noticed this just in me but alot of my friends as well.

Even now I am apart of the large percentage that NEEDS social media and technology to study, that wake up in the morning and the first thing I do is check my phone. I can’t go more than an hour without checking my phone and even then I have to make conscious effort, my phone is now my safety, I depend it on for almost everything.

If I had to write a letter to my younger self, I would tell her to not let it take over your life, to keep a constant check on the addiction that it causes to able to be self-dependent instead of being dependent on a device, and that even it is and will become even more of a necessity it doesnt need to be addictive if used right and that growing up to be care up to be careful of how you use social media and be aware of the harassment that takes place online, over the year i have gotten multiple stange messages from random unknown people most of claimed to know me and have also witnessed many people be maliciously harassed online therefore it is important not only to be alert and safe especially at all times in the digital world