Twenty years ago, incoming freshman would have had to wait an entire summer in nervous anticipation before meeting their fellow classmates. Now, with the advent of social media sites such as Facebook, Skype and Groupme incoming freshman are encouraged to form connections earlier online. This does have its benefits, like finding out who is attending your university from your area, allowing for area-wide meet-ups and simply making friends with common interests so you do not have to enter a completely new environment feeling entirely alone. However, these practices are not without their dangers.
Personality differences.
An Instagram or a Facebook profile does not do a person justice. If it did, people would just assume all I care about is fencing and suits. However, these profiles, which represent us online, are used to create the basis of the way the outside world sees us. For that reason, future classmates can look each other up online and make an opinion before really speaking to the person they have just judged, when in reality people want a fresh start in college.
Friend groups.
Humans, by nature, like to group up and form what seems like packs based around a common interest, ideology or simply by necessity or location. This carries over to the online world as well. On apps like GroupMe, which allow hundreds of people to participate in a single group-chat, the people that speak the most, and the most frequently, end up forming friend groups. There's nothing wrong with that, but it does create an air of exclusivity that once people get to college, they will feel unwelcome, unwanted or unable to form genuine connections with people, as it would it seem that everyone already has their friends.
Lack of sleep and loneliness.
Anyone who has stayed up late over Skype knows the hardships of the next day. Some people can pull an all-nighter, some clock out at 6 a.m. and some fall asleep during their morning runs. Overall, staying awake for up to 40 hours cannot be healthy, even though it is tempting to form stronger bonds, friendships and inside jokes. However, even if it is not just on Skype, you can stay up really late just trying to keep up with a GroupMe of 300 people and their conversations. In conjunction with both Skype and GroupMe, it becomes possible to let feelings of loneliness arise from exclusion or simply because if one turns off their phone, they go from a plane of existence where they’re surrounded by peers, to just being at home alone, creating a cyclical system of addiction where the user needs to be where the people are.
You forget to spend your summer with your old friends.
Finally, if a person is so intently focused on enjoying tomorrow, they run the risk of forgetting to live in the present. Making friends is amazing and friends themselves are a blessing, but -- and I’m guilty of this myself -- a person can forget their oldest friends from high school who they’ve spent years with, in exchange for friends they will spend time with in the future. This limbo period is one of anticipation, but it can potentially become a rushed period of abandonment.
Now, I realize I am an avid participant of Skype, Groupme, Facebook and Instagram, so this whole article may seem hypocritical. However, I am so thankful for the friends I have made so far who are going to accompany me through the next four years of university, both online and who I will meet in person in August, and those who I have been lucky enough to meet in person already. I already consider many of them dear to me and I enjoy their company over Skype, Messenger and in person.Social media is a tool meant to bring people together, and it has for me in phenomenal ways, but it can also absorb a person, and it is that fear that I wish to circumvent and bring to light. I understand that it reduces the anxiety of an incoming student, creates the foundation of a friend base, and unifies people through common interests and school pride. Every friend I speak to, I value immensely. I just don’t want myself or any of them to fall into any of the potential perils that exist because of all this online interaction, such as judging too soon, excluding potential new friends, forming unhealthy habits or letting time slip me by. I, in no way, want to bash or disparage anyone; these are just my fears of what may come that I wish to avoid.
