A friend tweets something golden. You re-tweet it. A family member has a baby. You post a million photos; you comment "all my love". A friend gets a pet. We make it our Snapchat story. A person you kind-of know goes on vacation, you "like" it. It solidifies your possible friendship.
When you're sick, you lay in bed certain of death. "I'm actually going to die," you moan to your mom over the phone or to your long-distance best friend over FaceTime. You desperately wish for someone to come and bring you soup or even just a hug, but at the same time you don't. You have Netflix. You have the Internet. You can pour over every social media outlet and see what everyone is doing.
We don't need to hang out now. Nothing happens in the real world, right? We sit on couches in basements, on our phones checking Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat updates. "Should I text him?" you ask yourself. Or "Did you see what Bailey posted? Can she ask for more attention?" We send Snapchats to friends who aren't there. They reply, "Miss u." "This is so funny!" we yell to each other.
We develop a crush. To show it, we send text messages, like their Instagrams, re-tweet their tweets. They do the same. Eventually, you begin to date. We show this mutual love by not waiting 10 minutes to respond to their texts. When it gets serious, we put their picture on Instagram and our friends comment with heart-eyed emoji. When it gets super serious, they'll become our profile picture. Soon, they'll delete Tinder. Soon their sister or friends add you on Instagram. We show our new relationships, claiming our territory in the land of pixels and likes.
Our friend goes through a breakup. We text them to see if they're okay. They aren't. We come over and help them delete old pictures, we earnestly debate if unfollowing them on all social media is acceptable or psychotic. We choose new profile pictures, the perfect next Instagram that shows "I'm winning the breakup!" We talk about the new girl and your ex's stupid Instagram profile and how the new girl isn't as attractive. We, as friends, wait for her to upload the next picture or Snapchat story then quickly discuss its faults. We are there in their time of need.
We don't need to check in anymore. There isn't a point. Facebook tells you everything. You can run into your ex-boyfriend from middle school and say "How are you?" but you don't really need to. You know he just studied abroad and has a good internship in a city. We following their progress from afar behind the safety of the glow of a computer.
We have fun. We just make sure it's expressed through our perfect Instagram after a night out or a hysterical Snapchat. We go on the perfect vacation, but the sun always looks beautiful through a good Instagram filter. So does our new puppy, new clothes or college campus.
We still love each other. We just show it through likes, comments and shared wall posts. We still know who is hurting and feel the need to reach out to them. We just express it in more likes, a few more texts. We still care. Our digital selves have just become our real selves. We still connect, just not really. We look to reach out so we are not alone- i'm just not sure if we know how anymore.
