I know that the topic of social media is a fairly controversial one. Some people love it, some people hate it. I'm kind of in the middle. I think it's an incredible thing for so many reasons but, at the same time, it can be awful.
I'm 19. I am a part of the generation that has pretty much grown up with social media. I don't remember what life was like without it - I think I made my Facebook account when I was 12 and got Twitter maybe six or seven months after and Instagram followed probably half a year after that, Snapchat and all the others came a bit later on. Social media quickly became a huge part of my life.
I remember back when I first got my Facebook account, I would come home from school and log straight on to my laptop and be on Facebook for the entire night. I would post about basically everything in my life - it's actually really embarrassing to look back on - I'm not even joking, it would be the 'Morning! <3', 'School :( <3', 'Ughhhh :(' kind of posts. My entire life, at age 12, 13 and 14 was documented on Facebook - so much so that I spent a lot of time last year deleting the really embarrassing posts. Who wants that haunting them? I certainly don't.
Having been a part of this generation, it definitely is difficult to not become really immersed in this social media culture that we tend to be living in nowadays. Yes, it's an incredible invention in so many ways but sometimes it takes over. You can find yourself obsessing over Instagram likes, how many Twitter followers you have, checking into 'cool' places and events on Facebook. It does get obsessive sometimes. Even in the blogging world, I'm a small blogger, yes, I've been writing my blog for three years now but in the grand scheme of things, my blog is tiny. I find that, to be able to work with brands or properly make use of platforms such as The Blogger Programme, you have to have a certain amount of followers on social media. Your opportunities are limited according to your social media presence. I understand why - with blogging becoming more of a profession and business rather than simply a hobby, brands and platforms can't work with everyone but it just adds this extra layer of pressure. For some, it's a common belief that you may never 'make it' in the blogging world unless you have these followers and relationships with brands and platforms. Thankfully, I don't feel like this. For me, blogging is a hobby. It's something that I wholeheartedly enjoy doing. Yes, upholding this blog is beneficial for me in the long run for my chosen career pathway but that isn't why I do it - if anything, blogging was one of the things that made me want to go into the world of journalism.
Don't get me wrong, social media has been a great platform for me to have. Not only as a small blogger, but also as a teenager. I have not only been able to use platforms such as Twitter to promote my blog and share my views on the world in a way that I, as someone who definitely lacked confidence (not so much now, but definitely in the past) probably wouldn't have been able to in the 'real world'. I've made friends for life through social media. In fact, some of my best friends are people I met through social media. As a side note, I wrote a post earlier in the year all about internet friends which you can read by clicking here. With social media, particularly sites like Twitter, you have instant connections with people according to what you like and, sometimes, what you don't like and, a lot of the time, that is what makes it so easy.
As a journalism student, one of the modules from my first semester this year was entitled Media and Society. Within these lectures and seminars, the issues of social media frequently came up. In fact, one seminar in particular stands out to me. I don't remember what the specific topic was, but we were comparing and contrasting LinkedIn with Instagram and discussing differences. The main difference that was mentioned by the group as a whole was that LinkedIn is typically professional while Instagram tends to be more 'fun'. When talking about the characteristics of Instagram, it was suggested by a number of people that Instagram is the 'best version of yourself' and I honestly can relate to this so much more than I think I realise. Perhaps subconsciously, I'm very specific with the things I post on my Instagram account. If you took one look at my profile right now, you'd see a lot of landscape / cityscape images. I've posted 24 photos that feature myself, out of my 79 posts on Instagram from the year (so far). There's a weird obsession with having a 'good Instagram', not only with myself but within my peers - my generation in general. We strive to present this image of ourselves that is flawless, only posting things that are 'cool' or exciting etc.
With Twitter, it's strange. I used to tweet a LOT. Now, not so much. I have my horoscope automatically tweeted from my account (partly because I love horoscopes, partly because I don't know how to turn it off) but, on most days, that's about it, aside from the occasional retweet. Again, probably because of people's opinions and comments. I remember one incident in particular - I was talking about Twitter with someone (in person, this is) and they said 'you tweet too much' and, guess what? I stopped tweeting as much. Looking back now, it's actually ridiculous. Why should and why did I let somebody's irrelevant opinion change something that I did. Granted, my tweets probably weren't the most insightful or exciting tweets but, at the end of the day, it was clearly something I enjoyed doing.
I suppose, one of the main issues that I personally have with social media is the immense amount of pressure that comes from it. In many ways social media lacks the pressure that many young people feel in day-to-day life, but in some ways, it's just as bad. We all know about the pressure in school to have the latest shoes, clothes, gadgets and so on but is social media not the same in some aspects? It's all about who has the most followers, highest engagements with posts, the most likes, cutting the mutual if someone says something you don't like, unfollowing someone if they don't follow back. Isn't this just as bad? There's that pressure. And, as much as we like to think that it doesn't happen, bullying happens online. Even if it's a snarky comment about someone's appearance, who they like or what they choose to do - there's always someone with an opinion, negative or not. I was talking to some friends (if you're reading this, you know who you are - thank you for helping me out and sharing your opinions) and one thing that came up was, again, to do with this pressure - 'pressure to look good and to have everything in your life looking perfect and putting a filter on your life'.
Obviously, there are tonnes of great things about social media. From talking to my friends and my parents, these are some things that we came up with for positive aspects of social media. Social media makes staying in contact with people incredibly easy, no matter where in the world they are or what they're doing, it helps you stay updated not only with what your friends and family are up to but also within the wider world. Social media is increasingly important in the news world (aside from the issues of fake news), especially in today's society - sites such as Facebook and Twitter are generally quite handy in the case of emergency, tragedy or if people are in danger. Social media also opens up a door to so many other worlds in terms of cultures, issues and knowledge because you are exposed to literally the entire world so it does help educate, in some way or another. Again, as previously mentioned, it allows you to connect with people from around the world with the same interests as you - friendships and relationships are always being formed on the internet and I personally think that's amazing.
How do you 'switch off' from social media? It's a tough one. It's something that's always there. It's always happening, no matter what time it is or where you are, social media does not sleep. It doesn't go anywhere. This is something that is hard enough to physically switch off from (because there is no definite end to it) but there's also a mentality about switching off from it. You can physically log out of your accounts, you can even lock your phone and laptop etc. away but you can't do that to your mind. I find myself constantly thinking about things that I see online - some good, some bad. But when does this become unhealthy? When do we need to step back and say, 'no, I need a social media break'? We are so immersed in this culture that I would bet that the majority of people don't know when to switch off. I can't say I definitely do. Obviously, if I'm out with friends or family I try to stay off my phone, unless we're taking a photo or something. It should be quality time spent with the people you love, not your phones. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm the all-knowing queen of being technology and social media-less. I'm not. I'm just as bad as anyone I know. The thing with me is that I know I shouldn't rely on social media as much as I do. Thankfully, my experiences with it haven't been horrendous in any way, shape or form. I've had a pretty good social media experience but that isn't the case for everyone. I see people on my Twitter feed bashing others and being bashed. It really can be a volatile, gross platform for the wrong kind of behaviour. I don't think that'll change drastically any time soon. I want it to but I can't see it happening. In today's society, we should be using our platforms for good. But, at the same time, I don't think we should rely on them. I, especially, need to figure out when enough is enough and when to switch off. I find myself constantly scrolling. Constantly refreshing. It's time to enter the real world - at least a bit more.
Social media, in general, is a tricky one. It's an incredibly subjective topic and I really do think that it's completely down to you as an individual to make your mind up about it. As some say, one man (or woman)'s trash is another (wo)man's treasure and I think that sums up social media. Some people love it, some people hate it. All you can do is whatever is best for you - don't let another person stop you from living your life the way you want (within reason, of course).
If you have any opinions about social media or the world in general, I would love to hear them. I think discussions like this need to happen, and should be happening. I truly believe that it's important to talk about things that can and do affect us, we should be sharing our opinions with each other so if there's any other topics you want me to write about, please let me know. Also, this topic has been discussed quite a lot on The Vamps' new podcast, How Little We Know which has been really insightful and I've really enjoyed listening to it so please do check that out if you have the chance.
Again, this is an opinion piece so these are just my opinions, I'm not trying to force these on any readers in any way - everyone is entitled to their own views - but I do want to thank you so much for reading and I'll see you soon with another post - I'll probably back to my usual topics and themes by then. XO
Comments
Post a Comment