To My Younger Self
To my younger self,
Social media is going to become a large part of your life that will possibly cause you to have many ups and downs. As you lie about your age to obtain a Facebook account because everyone else has one, you are just beginning to entire into this new world. The effects of social media are yet to reach you, and they won’t for another couple of years because you simply won’t understand it.
Social media may not seem like a bumpy road at first, but that is because you are only just starting to absorb it. You won’t understand it at first, which is okay because not everyone does. At first, you will probably find social media will provide you with a feeling of support and connection because it allows you have instant access to current events and can interact with all your friends. As years pass you will sign up for more and more social media platforms until you have all them all, still with them providing you will that special feeling. At the end of the growing phase, you will hit the peak. The peak is where you start to understand the incredible strength of social media a little more every week that goes by. The peak is where the effects of social media start to kick in. So, this is why I am here, to give you an insight into what social media is.
Whenever a kid signs up for social media I’m sure the last thing they expect is to feel a decline in their mental health. In reality, the correlation between social media and mental health is a common occurrence. Social media can be dangerous, but with a brief understanding of its powers, you will have a better chance of navigating social media. The first, and the most important thing to know is that the online world is constantly changing; it will seem as though every day there will be something new. The leading cause of the rapidly changing environment is social media. It is the hub for the distribution of the majority of information: presidential campaigns, impending hurricanes, global warming, and more. In part, the reason social media is so good at distributing information is that information can be posted online in seconds, shared by thousands and spread across the world to be seen by hundreds of millions of people in a matter of a day.
With this, there comes something to understand: everything and anything you post online will remain there for virtually forever. Even if you post something and then a day later decide you don’t want it online anymore, you cannot be one-hundred percent certain it hasn’t been copied or hundreds of people haven’t already seen it. What I am trying to say is be careful what you post as it will leave impressions online for as long as you are alive. If you think you may regret posting something later on down the road, then really think about it before posting or don’t post it at all.
Furthermore, you also need to be cautious about the information absorbed through social media. First of all, not everything you will read online is true. That is why you should always approach any information you read online with some hesitancy as it is entirely possible that it is absolutely made up. However, I’m not just talking about news. When looking at others social media accounts, be wary of the things they are posting for they may make their life look more luxurious than it truly is. Social media does an exceptional job at hiding the real someone; it provides them with a mask of sorts. So, when looking at these accounts that make people seem like they are living the perfect life, don’t be upset that your life doesn’t look or feel the same as theirs; one, because everyone has a different life, and two, no one truly has a perfect life — chances are there is something going on, big or small.
Now, I can tell you all the things I think are important, but there is one important step that I cannot help you with. You will need to experience all this for yourself before you can really get a grasp on what it is I am telling you. However, the one thing to take from everything I have said is that the online world can be deceiving and dangerous, so approach things with caution and examine the information you are absorbing. If you start to feel like social media is becoming heavy or it is affecting your mental health, take a break. One of the most important things to do while using social media is to take breaks.
My intention of this was not to scare you with all the bad things and all the lies that can come from social media but to simply warn you to be cautious. After all, there are many pros to social media that you will learn about through your own use. At the end of your learning period with social media, I’m sure you will only be left with few social media apps compared to the amount you had when you were first getting into the virtual world.
