My Thoughts on Social Media: LJ1

       Throughout my social media use I have put down a set of rules for myself. For example, I do not follow or allow people to follow my personal account if I do not know them and if a person or account is causing me to feel more negative than positive, I unfollow them. These rules applied to all of the platforms I have used, which includes Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok; interestingly enough the platforms I use follow the trend seen in one of our readings regarding age and platform use. I typically have two accounts, one to post my own content and follow only the people I know and trust and another to follow whomever I want but the account remains completely anonymous, I never post on them. These rules have served me well, especially when I first joined and posted on Snapchat often about work and my life, now I rarely post on any platform and when I do it is usually a very vague caption on a photo I feel comfortable sharing. Since joining social media I have definitely discovered that it is a much more negative experience than I initially thought and can certainly lead people down dangerous paths with body image issues and general negativity regarding themselves. If I could go back and give my past self knowledge about social media, I would warn her that it is very addictive and that the negativity from it can very become harmful. 

       I feel that social media can be a really cool and interesting way to express yourself as well as help find communities where you are able to connect with others who enjoy the same type of self expression; but it can also go terribly wrong with trolls and bullying that can cause the opposite effect of making a person feel isolated and alone. In general, I think selfies are fun and a great way to capture cute moments with people you love, however, they can also become a toxic cycle of self criticism and body image. A persons online image can also go multiple ways, some people may choose to be kind and spread awareness and kindness to others, other individuals may use their platforms to spread negativity and give them a voice to spread horrible thoughts and feelings they would not express to a person face to face, and some may simply choose to express all of the “perfect” aspects of their lives without acknowledging the imperfections. Overall, a persons online image is completely up to them to create and often times is not a direct reflection of a person rather, the person they want to be. Aside from the rules I specified for myself above, I also strongly believe that children under 18 should not be allowed to have social media at all, it often builds this desire to be perfect into them and causes them to feel very negative about themselves when they can’t reach that level of impossible “perfection” as they compare themselves to others who aren’t being genuine about how they look the way they do. Social media can be a dangerous spiral when people start comparing themselves to others, one I fell into for quite a long time, and only recently decided to climb out of. I have thought about quitting social media and actually deleted the Instagram app only a few weeks ago, I have also strongly debated deleting TikTok for similar reasons.