Buzz. Ping. tweet. Somewhere in the country, a teenager is hiding under the covers scrolling down their social media feed. With every new notification, they get lost in it. This is the reality for 45% children between the ages 11 to 18 according to a BBC survey conducted in 2017, 95% of them lost on social media. Buzz. Ping. Tweet. It is the viral world grasping your life and pulling you deep into it.
I was first exposed to the world of social media when it became a requirement to post on Instagram and Twitter daily for a journalism program I was attending at 16. By the time I was deep into my junior year, social media was everything. From pausing to take coordinated pictures, to re-arranging my food for that perfect Snapchat post. Every day I would post at least one thing on Instagram. You could scroll down my feed and know exactly what was going on in my life. If I was at cheer practice, or what movies I had seen and what my social rant of the day was. I used to always describe social media as a modern-day scrapbook. Your memories, thoughts, and photos all engraved into the software system.
In the fall of my freshman year of college, I realize how two-faced it was. I was always very careful about what I posted. Especially with being in Greek life. However, you do not control what others post about your personal life. During my first term of college, my relationship at the time began having issues after my partner cheated on me. The girl, whom he had slept with, took upon Twitter and actively tweeted out details of the affair. She later proceeded to use social media to threaten me to leave my boyfriend and to never come back to my town.
Social media.
God. I hated it.
Instead of feeling control of my own life and posts, I found my personal life splattered all over the cyber-space. Yes, I can put a private account on my profiles, but I don't have control over what others post on their accounts regarding my life. You don't have control over how others use social media. The sad thing is that 87% of youth today are experiencing this type of cyberbullying.
Social media is a bathroom stall and everyone has a sharpie.
It was early spring when I was sitting in my dorm and thinking, what the heck am I doing here? Why does my number of likes or followers matter? I am spending hours scrolling down a feed of photos and truly, I don't care. My present on social media started growing less and less, until nada.
Did I miss it? Nah, not one bit. And 365 days later I feel the same way.
I found myself enjoying the view, rather than looking for the likes and retweets. I would go on hikes or travel and instead of seeing the views through my phone camera, I was actually seeing them as they really were: filter free. I spent so much time off my phone that I would often forget it at home or have it dead. And as the months passed, I started seeing the true colors of friendship.
Social media can make it easy to stay in touch with people, but that does not make your friendship real. Friendship is the girls who don't text you but show up to your dorm room when they know you are having a bad period. Friends are the people you spend hours on the phone with and not simply a comment on an Instagram post saying "Omg, miss you girl. Luv ya. Let's hang soon," but never send you an invite. Friends are the people you tell things to, rather than tweeting #twittersayitfirst how about, #mybestfriendhearditfirst.
Yes, although I "broke up" with social media this year, I did use some aspects of it, however in moderation. Due to work and clubs, I had requirements to post on Social Media. In order to keep my cleanse, I did everything in moderation. In reality, you do not need to completely cut out social media, however using it appropriately is important.
You spend a year out of the face of social media. Your follower count drops by thirty. But, you never lose anything. You still have your memories, the friendships that count and most importantly, your smile.
