From elections to ecards, social media has been home to a lot of things recently. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr have all served my generation (“The Millennials”) well. These platforms have allowed us to share our opinions on anything--ranging from how a school day went to venting about the latest scandal in the newspaper. And with these opinions come likes, comments and shares. Or tons of ‘favorites,’ ‘retweets’ and ‘reblogs.’
Thanks to social media, we as college students have been able to express ourselves in ways that were never possible before this technological advancement. Instead of just being interviewed for the school magazine where only some students may read it, you can upload that interview to YouTube for your whole school to see. Or instead of simply asking your BFF for her opinion on the issue of college costs, you can setup a poll or survey on Facebook to get the feedback of 500-1,000 people (depending on how many friends you have).
The point is: social media has created a whole new way for us to communicate. People upload photos/videos of personal and progressive things every single day for others to view, read and comment on. Because of this, the way in which we converse has changed. We’re more connected and this has helped us reach bigger audiences which in turn leads to a greater impact on society.
I wanted to write this article because I have never been one of those people to share super important issues on social media. But in recent weeks, I’ve seen videos of political rallies and celebrity opinions on subjects like feminism and a potential woman candidate. And I wanted to share my thoughts on all of these matters. While I’m not super comfortable talking about politics all the time, these past couple weeks it seems to be the #1 topic of conversation, both inside and outside of my classes.
For example, in my English class, we’ve been talking about race, culture and politics in today’s world. We’ve been reading essays by James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Claudia Rankine and discussing how these words impact our views. I desperately wish I would have had more courage to speak up in class, but instead I wrote a blog post about things just to get them off my chest. I shared it to my Facebook and Twitter pages and got a pretty positive response. This is just one way that social media provided me with a different way to speak my mind. Without it, I felt like my voice was lost that day.
Some people today don’t give our generation enough credit. Honestly, they should believe in us more. We have way more to contribute than selfies and #hashtags. You should also believe in yourself more, because no matter what race you are or where you come from, your opinion matters. Your voice matters. So don’t be afraid. We shouldn’t have to be afraid to share what we really think and feel. Share your thoughts, whether that’s in 140 characters or in 14 pages. Let it out--you deserve and have a right to. Your online image should be as real and raw as the person that stares back at you in the mirror every day. So take a deep breath and have the courage to hit ‘post’-- trust me, you won’t regret it.
