I Don't Need It

I Don’t Need It

           

            For anyone who was born in the 80’s, 90’s, or 2000’s; the Internet was most likely to be a big part of their lives growing up. For myself, I was born in 1995 and the first time I heard about or saw people using social media was when I was in the fifth grade. My neighbor who was a senior in high school thought it was crazy that kids in my grade were on MySpace and AIM at 10 years old. I recall one summer afternoon where my neighbor, my mom, and myself were looking at kids MySpace profiles. My mother was appalled. She felt these kids were way to young to be posting anything on the Internet.

            My mom watches the news a lot and can get paranoid about the stories she hears. She feels that the Internet is a dangerous place with thieves and predators. She knows that there is obviously good in it, considering that she has an online business, but she feels that it is something that you need to be really careful with. As a result, I was not allowed to get any social media until I was sixteen years old. I went all through middle school and the first have of high school without it. I would hear kids talk about what their “away message” was or why they were never “on” in the summer until AIM became “stupid”. Then I heard about people “getting Facebook”; so now there were two big social media outlets that people used that could share both pictures and messages. Then of course, MySpace became “mad dumb” so people were all about Facebook for a couple years.

            I made my Facebook when it was at the peak of its popularity, 2011, the summer going into junior year of high school. Everyone wrote on my wall saying, “yes you finally got a facebook!”. It was funny how people were so excited for it. Facebook was the norm, everyone in high school had one and was on it everyday. Christmas of 2011 was also the year where you heard every kid in school got an iPhone for Christmas so now there was more accessibility for social media for the average high school student. Then about a year later Twitter and Instagram became very popular. The Facebook craze started to ease and towards senior year it was hardly used by my peers unless it was for school freshmen group pages.

            I used Twitter and Instagram a lot. They are great forms of expression and are much more personalized because you can control what comes on your feed. Who can see what you post is not dependent on who shows up on your feed like on Facebook. I feel in love with Instagram. It got me into photography and I got to keep up on skateboarding more. I used it so much everyday that it got to the point of where it was unhealthy. During senior year, it would bum me out if pictures wouldn’t get a lot of likes. “Were they not cool? Was I not cool? Did people not like me? Or did people not like the picture? Why?” Why would I think like this? I’m not too sure. I feel like you want people to like you and want people to think you are cool. If you are cool on social media, you are cool in real life right? People yearn for acceptance and approval from others.

            I took a year and a half break from Instagram from freshmen year to junior year of college. I did it because it became too unhealthy for me. I wanted to care less about it and feel refreshed. I did not want “likes” to determine my self worth anymore. I didn’t want to obsess over pictures of people. I wanted to not have the feeling of always wanted to check the app or refreshing the feed. I wanted to spend time learning new thing and stop being stuck in the same stop. I wanted to not feel addicted to something. I wanted to not have the fear of missing out.

            Today, after the break, sometimes I felt like I did not learn anything from it but I have gained a new look at social media. I have a greater appreciation for it and I want to work in/with it in a future career. I learned how powerful it can be to people as a marketing and personal influential tool. I have learned to be healthier with it as well. I did not want to be all caught up in it again. To me now, a person’s social media account does not fully represent the kind of person they are.

Social media is like a form of an alternative identity. I feel like social media is also kind for that reason too because I did not like my life was any different with or without Instagram. There is people who do not choose to use any social media. There are people who boycott the system and reuse to use social media. My best friend Brian is completely off the grid. He refuses to use any forms of it. He would rather a phone call to catch up or hang out in person. He also feels like that social media is a place for embarrassment. He doesn’t want to post something and have someone think it is lame. Then as a result they would later think he is lame. He also just doesn’t want people to know what he is doing either or information about himself. He is a much more personal guy. He doesn’t see the point of social media and thinks it is really dumb.

The debate will continue for years until a new form of technology comes out that advances connection between people. CNN discusses that life can be great without. Your professional image can be easier to upload. You can focus more a real life conversation and getting social anxiety. It is easier to keep your privacy and waste less time. You may have less friends that way, but your friendships will be more valuable. (Imam)

Work Cited

Imam, Jareem. "The Anti-social Network: Life without Facebook." CNN. Cable News

Network, n.d. Web. May 2016.

<http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/18/tech/social-media/facebook-

deactivation-ireport/>.