Social media is going to kill us all.
Last spring, I gave Snapchat a try. It was what all the cool kids were doing, so I downloaded it out of fear of being out of touch. I’m still young and hip just like everyone else, I swear! I immediately started receiving (what felt like) millions of snaps a day. At first I thought it was cute. Then it got annoying because I couldn’t keep up with it. Then, it started making me mad.
There was something not-so-fun about watching seconds upon seconds of people’s lives. I feel like I didn’t need to be there. I sort of missed being in the dark and having something to catch up with friends over instead of knowing what they were doing every second of their lives. And, not going to lie, sometimes I felt left out. I didn’t like taking it personally for no reason, so I just deleted it. Easy!
Facebook is next on my list of things to rid myself of. It has become a place for people to dump their political thoughts and fight and all it does is bring negative energy to my life. So many times I have had opinions of people I really liked change because of the things they post on Facebook. The judgmental bullshit is what enrages me the most. Support Trump all you want, you’re certainly not going to sway my vote, but stop shitting on people for changing their Facebook profile pictures to rainbows or Peanuts characters! Why do you even care?
Still, every now and then, people post interesting articles or exciting news about their lives, so I’m still hanging on (and logging in once a day) to catch those parts. I really like hearing about your weight loss journeys, engagements and new jobs! So keep sharing!
Although, I did recently miss an announcement that my friend was going to be on a TV show and just happened to catch him on it while I was watching it and got very excited for him! When I logged into Facebook and saw that everyone was talking about it, I was kind of happy to have just witnessed it in the moment and experience an unexpected moment of joy for my friend.
Instagram, on the other hand, is my last remaining source of social love. I love the filtered, curated moments of people’s lives. I love every selfie, every cat, every dog, every meme, every quote that you feel resonates with your life in that moment. In my opinion, people tend to think before posting on Instagram. It’s the one platform where I feel as though people actually care about the amount they’re posting and make sure the picture they upload is a good representation. This is not always the case… not even for me. But hey, whatever, my Instagram page accurately represents my funny, messy life full of cats, dogs and my very own face.
However, some days Instagram drains me of happiness just like every other social platform. Some days I’m homesick and I see people having fun in Boston, or even just a building in Boston, and I get really sad. Some days I don’t want to see pictures of warm weather when it’s so cold. Whatever the reason, pictures on Instagram can make me angry or sad. So I avoid it like the plague and wait until my happiness levels even out.
There are times when I want to quit everything and just live my life quietly. I want to enjoy the moment as it happens and catch up with people and not know everything about everyone’s lives. I miss there being a little bit of mystery. But, other times I want to post pictures of myself holding my friend’s dog and go through old profile pictures of high school acquaintances.
So, I’m going back to my original statement, throwing my hands up in the air and calling this confusing time in my life quits. Social media is going to kill us all.
No comments:
Post a Comment