When I first created a page online, it was on a website called Bebo. Bebo was fun and everyone my age had a page. A Bebo page could have music, pictures, graphics, etc. There was no limit to my new form of expression via the internet. After Bebo, I joined Tagged, Myspace and a few other sites that I don't quite remember. They all allowed me to keep up with my friends and express myself in a way I hadn't been able to physically.

The trouble with that came when I got in trouble in middle school for cyber-bullying. My principals and administrators were basically prosecuting me for expressing myself at home.Though things were being said about me online, my retaliation was magnified and brought to the attention of some pretty important people. I was so upset and hated everyone at school, especially the girl who told on me. Everyone looked at me as a bully and I was treated differently. As I grew older I realized the mistake I made and that experience resulted in my never wanting to fully express myself on social media again.

Adults always warned to "watch what I post online." They'd say my future jobs would see everything or the government will always have a copy of my posts. I being the rebellious individual that I am, argued that a job cannot dictate my employment based on my personal posts that I do in my leisure time. Now, present day, just about every job application asks for social media accounts. The adults were right, employers will judge me based on my social media. This somewhat bothers me.

There are so many rules to having "Freedom of Speech." Not only will I be judged by friends and followers by what I post but I must also face judgement from outsiders. Outsiders don't know or care about my life. They get to skim through posts that most likely express temporary feelings that were relevant during the time of my posting and from that they develop an interpretation of me.

I'm not trying to be a cyber-bully advocate or anything and I am not attacking employers for their hiring methods. I'm simply elaborating on why I took a huge retreat from social media for a long time. It was just way too complicated for me! After creating a Snapchat, which deletes posts after 24 hours, I have somewhat rejoined everyone else in the world of internet socialization. I have made my own rules for posting and I work really hard to not mentally judge others for their posts. I consider social media to be an essential part of my brand now, not my real life.

I'm pretty sure the creators for these hit sites all had good intentions when they created them. Social media has transformed the world but I'm not sure it was a completely positive transformation. I empathize with Hilary Clinton and her email scandal and I thank God for Odyssey! I, too, take responsibility for abusing social media but, the truth is— users are just as much abused.