When thinking about my personal online presence, it can be quite scary. As a person who is in college and looking for potential job opportunities in the future, my online presence can have a huge impact on how that may pan out for me. Am I posting the right things? Do people actually care about me and what is going on in my life? Is it worth having social media at all...? All of these things I think about weekly, sometimes even daily when life gets tough. Social media and the internet in general can be a very dangerous place. For me, it has brought a lot of joy, connections with people I do not talk to on a daily/weekly basis, however it has also brought a lot of anxiety, depression, and unhappiness to my life as well.
I remember when I was younger, I got my first cell phone when I was 9 or 10 years old. I was so excited! I felt as though I was the last person in my class in the 4th grade to get a cell phone, and all I wanted to be was one of the cool kids (sometimes I still feel like I am trying to be one of the cool kids ha!) But then I started to get online, and as a young, immature girl, it got really dangerous, really quickly. My parents discovered I was talking with strangers on this app called "Kik," and they were scared about if I was sending inappropriate pictures or not (safe to say, I did not.) After that incident happened when I was 12, they started to become strict with my presence on social media. I had Instagram, and when I was in middle school around eighth grade, I downloaded Snapchat as well. I also got into dating apps in early high school. Was that a bad decision? Absolutely. I remember being bullied when people in my class found my account, and it was so embarrassing. Soon after, I realized that having all these apps wasn't the best thing to be a part of, so I deleted everything except Instagram and Snapchat. Those two apps was all I had for a long while.
I remember being in middle school, and going into high school all I wanted to be was part of the popular group, and have them like me. I wanted that more than anything growing up. I thought that posting certain things on Instagram, following more people, having a good presence online and doing other kinds of dangerous things with strangers would make them like me. Instead, they made fun of me, and would talk behind my back about how embarrassing it was, and I realized it was not the right thing to do. After I came to that conclusion, I became more aware of my online presence tremendously. I started posting things on Instagram that I know my parents, grandparents, and other family members would be proud of (yes, they all follow me now on social media ha!) I got heavily involved in the church, and I would not care about who followed me, how many likes I would get, and who was seeing what I posted. I discovered that my online presence doesn't matter as much as I think it does. It's societies way of judging perfectly normal people.
With having social media, having the proper mindset of "I don't care what people say about me" is healthy when it comes to bullying. However, making sure you know what you post online and how you keep your social media presence appropriate is huge for job opportunities, and future internships. Right before I left for Spring Break this semester, I was in my sororities chapter on a Tuesday night and one girl told the whole chapter about an incident that happened with another sister at another university just recently. She applied for a job, and the company contacted Snapchat and asked to have permission to see all of her snaps that she has ever sent on her account, her private text messages, and her posts on her "story." This costed her the job with the company because of what they discovered on her account. So knowing what to post out there, and having the mindset of "Once you hit publish, you cannot erase it even if you delete it. It is out there forever," it very important to have.
In my generation, ever since social media has become what it is today, people have developed more serious mental illnesses, and have had worsening anxiety, panic attacks, depression, suicidal thoughts, and much more. It's the fear of missing out, the panic that sets in when you see the boy you like post a picture with another girl at Homecoming, the sadness when you see all your close friends at a birthday party you weren't invited to, seeing a famous girl with a perfect body as you sit and look in the mirror afraid to ever wear a bikini again.
Nowadays, every couple of months I take long breaks and delete all my social media apps on my phone. This includes Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc. I really try and disconnect so that I can focus on my mental health, and other important things in life. And during these times, I realize that my phone is kind of useless except for texting or calling people. So on some days, I just leave my phone at home and go run errands with my mom, or go visit my grandmother with my dad for the whole day. It is so refreshing. It is something I try and inform all of my friends to do, and let them know that it is so healthy for you mentally, and that your online presence is not everything nowadays. Take a break, and breathe for a bit.
Source: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm
I remember when I was younger, I got my first cell phone when I was 9 or 10 years old. I was so excited! I felt as though I was the last person in my class in the 4th grade to get a cell phone, and all I wanted to be was one of the cool kids (sometimes I still feel like I am trying to be one of the cool kids ha!) But then I started to get online, and as a young, immature girl, it got really dangerous, really quickly. My parents discovered I was talking with strangers on this app called "Kik," and they were scared about if I was sending inappropriate pictures or not (safe to say, I did not.) After that incident happened when I was 12, they started to become strict with my presence on social media. I had Instagram, and when I was in middle school around eighth grade, I downloaded Snapchat as well. I also got into dating apps in early high school. Was that a bad decision? Absolutely. I remember being bullied when people in my class found my account, and it was so embarrassing. Soon after, I realized that having all these apps wasn't the best thing to be a part of, so I deleted everything except Instagram and Snapchat. Those two apps was all I had for a long while.
I remember being in middle school, and going into high school all I wanted to be was part of the popular group, and have them like me. I wanted that more than anything growing up. I thought that posting certain things on Instagram, following more people, having a good presence online and doing other kinds of dangerous things with strangers would make them like me. Instead, they made fun of me, and would talk behind my back about how embarrassing it was, and I realized it was not the right thing to do. After I came to that conclusion, I became more aware of my online presence tremendously. I started posting things on Instagram that I know my parents, grandparents, and other family members would be proud of (yes, they all follow me now on social media ha!) I got heavily involved in the church, and I would not care about who followed me, how many likes I would get, and who was seeing what I posted. I discovered that my online presence doesn't matter as much as I think it does. It's societies way of judging perfectly normal people.
With having social media, having the proper mindset of "I don't care what people say about me" is healthy when it comes to bullying. However, making sure you know what you post online and how you keep your social media presence appropriate is huge for job opportunities, and future internships. Right before I left for Spring Break this semester, I was in my sororities chapter on a Tuesday night and one girl told the whole chapter about an incident that happened with another sister at another university just recently. She applied for a job, and the company contacted Snapchat and asked to have permission to see all of her snaps that she has ever sent on her account, her private text messages, and her posts on her "story." This costed her the job with the company because of what they discovered on her account. So knowing what to post out there, and having the mindset of "Once you hit publish, you cannot erase it even if you delete it. It is out there forever," it very important to have.
In my generation, ever since social media has become what it is today, people have developed more serious mental illnesses, and have had worsening anxiety, panic attacks, depression, suicidal thoughts, and much more. It's the fear of missing out, the panic that sets in when you see the boy you like post a picture with another girl at Homecoming, the sadness when you see all your close friends at a birthday party you weren't invited to, seeing a famous girl with a perfect body as you sit and look in the mirror afraid to ever wear a bikini again.
Nowadays, every couple of months I take long breaks and delete all my social media apps on my phone. This includes Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc. I really try and disconnect so that I can focus on my mental health, and other important things in life. And during these times, I realize that my phone is kind of useless except for texting or calling people. So on some days, I just leave my phone at home and go run errands with my mom, or go visit my grandmother with my dad for the whole day. It is so refreshing. It is something I try and inform all of my friends to do, and let them know that it is so healthy for you mentally, and that your online presence is not everything nowadays. Take a break, and breathe for a bit.
Source: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm
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