I am no stranger to social media. I have over 27,000 tweets, over 800 Instagram posts and have been on Facebook since 2008. That was my freshman year, when I would post everything that would cross my mind and I'm pretty sure that no one actually cared what I had to say. Sophomore year, I joined Twitter and would only post about my significant other at the time (can you say unfollow?). Finally senior year, I joined Instagram and try to be artsy. (and let's face it, I still do this to this day. How many pictures of my coffee you all have seen?)
I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I like it because it serves the purpose of making and keeping connections. I like it because it involves sharing, because if something major happens than I can find some sort of support, good or bad, through the reactions of my "friends." I like that social media sparks a conversation, whether it's about the weather or about books that one is reading. I've made some awesome friends through social media, and I think it's an awesome way to connect. However, I don't like it because the funny thing about the Internet is that once it's out there, it's out there.
Sometimes, we share too much. This is called oversharing. The question here is, are we oversharing?
Yes, I believe so. Yes, because everytime I log onto my Facebook, I see people who post every thought they have and then I see some who haven't posted anything in weeks. I see people who post pictures close to every day, and then I see those who change their profile picture once every three years. Social media, like the personality behind the people who use it, can vary.
The thing about it, is that it can be addictive. Before one knows it, you are letting people have a glimpse of things you have no control over. Before you know it, you find yourself doing things for the sake of simply having something to post. Although we have the control of what we post and the consistency of it, we simply let it control us. And we simply need to not let it do so.
How has it been the one taking the wheel? Well, let me tell you.
Moments that were once private can be captured with a camera. Whether it's a selfie, what you're eating for dinner, or a throwback of yesterday, your timeline is constantly updated with some sort of image. Hashtags, which were once used to be for number signs, are now used for trends. #TBT, for example. Man crushes are only on Mondays, Transformations come on Tuesdays, women crushes are on Wednesdays, and throwbacks/flashbacks are reserved for Thursday and Friday. Thoughts have to be minimalized to 140 characters or less. It seems like our life is revolved around a heart or like, all displayed on the 4.7 inch screen. While it's jumped through hoops, I can't help but wonder what it's done for us.
How I use social media is mainly for photos and for linking posts. As a blogger, I take a lot of pictures so I can talk about them and use them for future posts. As a College Fashionista Style Guru, I use social media to get people to read my stuff. As a college student, I like social media because then I can procrastinate. But as much as I like and use social media, I will always have a weird relationship with it. I aim to never overpost, because I am paranoid about the Evil Eye of those who may or may not like me. I try to keep some parts of my life private, because I believe we're lacking the privacy of certain things. Like, if I talked to a hot guy in bio class chances are I'm not going to tweet about it. But, if something awesome happens, such as getting an internship, I will be posting about that.
Furthermore, I use social media the way one should eat sugar-sparingly. My social media habits may differ from everyone, but that's okay. In the end, social media is to serve the purpose of being social. And since everyone does that differently, than we can't expect to have a uniform way of posting.
