To Daniel, From Daniel

My first major social network was Facebook. Funny thing is I didn’t sign up myself, my friend did for me while I was sitting right beside him. Having someone else do it for me really relieved the pressure of having doing it myself and questioning whether or not I should sign up. I was about 12 when I first got it and I never posted anything at first. I didn’t really understand this social media platform until like a year later when everybody was posting pictures they edited on Picnik. Then I started to give Facebook a try by taking some embarrassing photos and seeing what would happen.

Surprisingly, people actually liked my photos and that’s when all the ladies started rolling into my dm’s…. I wish. After that, I became pretty active by responding to people’s posts, commenting and liking photos and posting content of my own. However, that all changed when my friends and I were “Google-ing” ourselves one day to see if we could see ourselves on Google Images. This really scared me being so young and knowing that anyone could see who I was and what I was doing on social media. I got really freaked about this and decided to delete all my pictures and change my privacy. After going “ghost”, I found myself still not content. Facebook’s privacy setting still did not seem safe for me anymore so I decided to deactivate my Facebook. By the time I got into high school my opinion about Facebook didn’t change. Knowing what I know now about Facebook, there is no hope for trying to be private on social media anymore. If I were to write a letter to myself when first signing up for Facebook it would go a little something like this.

Dear Daniel,

You are the sickest person I know so I’m going to give you a little advice on how you should approach social media. The first thing you gotta know is that you have to be cautious of what you are posting. That selfie you think looks good, doesn’t actually look good no matter how handsome you are. Stop using Picnik and learn Photoshop. As well as don’t harass or make fun of someone online but you already know that one. Secondly, Facebook can be a good and bad thing. The good thing about it is you get to network at such a young age which is amazing how you can make connections with people so easily from your computer. The bad thing is is that there are people out there that want to network with you that aren’t the greatest people to be around, so try to avoid anyone creepy or mean. Remember to block and don’t friend anyone you don’t already know. The third thing you should know is that you shouldn’t let it take over your life, go out and play soccer more than you already do, either with your friends or by yourself. Lastly, is to always stay positive and use Facebook as a tool to showcase the best of yourself and let people know how genuine you are. Also, remember to always have fun with it.

Sincerely,

Daniel