Social media is defined as "computer-mediated tools that allow people or companies to create, share, or exchange information, career interests, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks." This may have been true when the rise of social media was first flourishing with sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter but I can honestly say I don't feel that people are using these sites for pleasurable, positive interactions anymore. I use to enjoy logging onto my social media sites after class or work to see what my friends and family were up to but now I dread logging on and honestly use it to pass time - or waste it which I am now realizing the older I get. I am saddened when I log on and here's why:

Fight Accounts

Since when did we begin to glamorize and find humor in children, teens, and adults being physically violent with one another? When did it become humorous to add funny sound effects to videos of children smashing each other's head into the ground? There are hundreds of accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook solely dedicated to posting these sorts of videos and it is sickening to see how many people join in and encourage these types of posts. What may be even more sickening is that watching these videos, you see that not one person (typically) steps in to end the violence but instead it becomes a battle of the onlookers to see who can get the best angle or most views on the video.

Children Rapping and Dancing

While these videos may be cute and humorous at first, if you step back and actually think about what these children are doing - is it really that cute? There are hundreds of videos that circulate throughout social media that shows young children rapping the lyrics to the newest rap song or showing off how they can twerk. Is this really the messages we want to be sending to our youth? We really want our children singing and knowing lyrics to rap songs about alcohol, weed, & 'hoes' ? We use to sing along to Britney Spears, Dream Street, and dance the cha-cha slide and now I see videos of people encouraging their young ones to partake in behavior that is intended for adults and to me - that is not cute. Let kids be kids.

Subtweeting and Cyberbullying

Though I know there will never truly be an end to cyberbullying or subtweeting, it has become a lot more prevalent than when I first joined social media. I may be the only one who feels this way but I truly don't find anything more annoying than seeing people subtweet each other - and honestly a lot of times its over irrelevant things anyways. Does what someone else do with their lives or what they believe in or whether or not they have a dog filter on Snapchat really impact your life that greatly where you need to take time out of your day to tweet about it. Let's be honest too - subtweets are usually obvious who they're about and I think they make the tweeter look bad - just my opinion. I know I am guilty of this in my past - we all are - but I am glad I have reached a mature enough point in my life to realize that people can do whatever the hell they want if it makes them happy - who am I to judge?

These are just a few changes that I have began to notice taking over my social media feed and if they don't appear on your timeline than I'd consider you the lucky minority. I want to log onto my social media accounts and see positive messages being spread and sadly, its been the complete opposite lately. If all lives matter than why are we finding enjoyment out of humans beating other humans so violently that unconsciousness is often the result. Why are we sending messages to children that they shouldn't be receiving then questioning why they have certain morals and understandings when they begin to grow. Why are we publicly putting each other down, putting each others business out there, and being so negative towards one another on social media. That's not what it was created for. Hatred and negativity is not "Going to Make America Great Again" and making a change towards positivity and acceptance and fairness starts with us - the users and encouragers of this negative behavior.