Social Media & Me

Social media has grown to be a big component of my life. I made my first social media account in middle school on Instagram, mostly because all my friends had one. Back in middle school and high school, I would post just about anything. I even had a second Instagram account for my closest of friends where I'd post my thoughts, random pictures that didn't fit the "aesthetic" of my main Instagram account, or pictures and videos that I found funny and wanted to share with my friends. 

Eventually, Instagram grew to Snapchat, and Snapchat grew to Twitter, and Twitter grew to just about everything else. I even had a quick phase of posting vlogs onto my Youtube account in hopes of being the next famous YouTuber. I even remember some of my friends making fun of me for having a TikTok account before TikTok became what it is today. Now, it feels like I have every social media platform that exists: LinkedIn, Reddit, Facebook, Goodreads, Discord, Pinterest, etc. 

Nowadays, my social media presence has definitely shrunken. Don't get me wrong, I am still active on most of these platforms, but now, I only make the occasional post to my Instagram stories and main feed. On all my other platforms, I have more of a passive presence. Giving the occasional like or repost on TikTok, or just lurking on Facebook and Twitter. I think as I've gotten older from my middle school days, I've started to understand how impactful social media is and how impactful a social media presence can be. I am now more selective of what I share, and I try to remind myself and understand the power social media has these days. Part of the reason I wanted to take this course was to learn more about that.

- Lydia

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