I have had enough of the overall negative attitude that has been sadly placed on social media. Over the past few days, the topics of social media have come up in my classes and conversations, and the general consensus keeps shifting to a total shaming of social media. Social media is not ruining our generation. It has, yes, changed the experience of being a person, but it is an awe-inspiring way of being connected to way more people than anyone could have imagined. Over and over, people are blaming social media for what is wrong with our generation. In reality, it is just a tool that can be used for good or evil. No one is being forced to use it. It can be used as much or as little as you want. I am fed up with hearing from people how horrible social media is.

"You're obsessed with Snapchat." says some condescending person. Is that supposed to be some kind of insult? I hope not because that is not how I'm taking it. I am simply taking advantage of a tool that makes my face into a lamb and generates Geotags that show all the cool places I'm at. I keep hearing that social media is this huge problem for us, but it is what our generation knows and as far as I'm concerned, it does a lot of good for us too. I can stay connected with plenty of people who I most likely would not be in any contact with. Post-high school, I have much less contact with people who I saw every single day for four years that are now thousands of miles away from me in all kinds of directions. There is no way I could call all of them, but I can post something on Instagram to show them what I'm up to and I can see what they are doing too. We just want to share our stories. There is nothing wrong with sharing or not sharing if you're feeling a day without your phone. I get that, but If I hear one more time that I'm not experiencing things because I Snapchatted them, I am going to go crazy. I just want to share this experience with all my Snapchat friends. I do think the issue is not to let social media take over. I am all for "let's put our phones away while we eat" ideas, but if at the start of the meal we take a moment to Snap/Tweet/Foodstagram food, that is totally fine. The food is not going to taste any less "fire" if we do this. Saying that we should stop posting our lives away is like saying that back in the late 1600s, we should have stopped everyone from using the postal system. Connecting people from one place to somewhere maybe even across the oceans without seeing each other face-to-face. How horrible. It is called progression. We have to adapt and keep going.

I think it is fascinating how fast Tweets, Snapchats, Instagram posts, Facebook posts, LinkedIn updates, and Youtube videos can be shared across the globe. We are so privileged to be able to post and share and remember what has led our lives to where we are. It is really cool to have all different accounts of human experience in the palms of our hands. I may never get to visit a certain country, but if my Facebook friend puts up an album from her vacation, at least I can see some of it. I think that's pretty cool. I love hearing contradicting and controversial opinions and with social media, I can do that without even getting out of bed. Yes, I understand it is changing our world completely and with that comes a lot of responsibility. We need to be aware that it is a huge adjustment but it is not bad. It is really cool if we use it in the right way. It doesn't replace a phone call or meeting up with someone face to face, but stop hating it. It has its perks and we just need to embrace it as an asset to the world that we are currently living in. Keep posting. Stop shaming.