To My Younger Self
Dear me,
This is your future self.
I am here to give you the advice you didn’t know you needed. I want to share with you a few nuggets of wisdom before you enter high school and embark on a social media journey.
Tip #1: Stop leaving Facebook account logged in and running
You’ve just signed up for Facebook against Mum and Dad’s wishes. They don’t know you have Facebook right now but they’ll figure it out pretty quickly because you have a habit of leaving the computer with your account running. It’s not that they don’t want you to have an account, it’s just that it’s fairly new they’ve been told by everyone that online predators are going to try and talk to you. (So cut them a little slack they’ll get over it.)
Tip #2: Facebook isn’t everything
There will be no Facebook shortage in the future. You are in grade eight — soon to be grade nine — and Facebook is NOT going anywhere. Enjoy hanging with friends completely offline. There is only so much you can do on it anyways with 27 friends so take it easy.
Tip #3: Photos and statuses
You’ve been told this hundreds of times but the internet is permanent. Everything you do/say online will come back to bite you sooner or later. Luckily you do get this concept because (s0 far) nothing serious has ever happened. But something needs to be said about those embaressing statuses and photos you insist on posting 4 times a day. They are cute every once in a while but seriously there is no need for an excessive amount. I had a lot of deleting to do when all of this went out of style.
Tip #4: Adding friends
When Facebook “suggests” friends to you it DOESN’T mean you immediately add them. 90% of the time you don’t actually know these people so you should really know better than adding strangers as friends. But for that other 10% of the time when you do know who they are, you still don’t need to add them. The number of Facebook friends you have doesn’t determine how popular you are and you will end up deleting half of them in a few years time — so save yourself the trouble.
Tip #5: Liking pages
Girl you need to chill on this one. Yes it can be fun to like all the funny and random pages on Facebook but do you know how long it takes to unlike over 600 of them? I don’t want to spoil all the fun but maybe try limiting yourself.
Tip #6: Profile pictures
Saved the best for last because most likely you skipped over everything else and came straight to the bottom of the page. That’s ok because this one is the most important anyways. You should know that when you upload a new profile picture it doesn’t matter how many people like it. Less likes won’t make you a loser and more likes won’t make you popular. Over time you’ll find that those numbers don’t mean anything and won’t shape your life in anyway at all. It’s ok to be disappointed but don’t let it get you down. Facebook is just one of the many social media platforms you will discover over the next few years and doesn’t measure who are you in real life.
Love,
Future Erin xoxox
