Social Media

So, I am/was (still undecided) not a supporter of the widespread use of social media. I was in middle school when the Facebook (and yes, I call it the Facebook) rose to popularity. My parents told me that I was not allowed to get an account which only made the allure of the whole idea increase! However, there is no doubt that it caused many problems for my classmates; who had more friends than who? why are there pictures from an event that I didn’t know was even happening? what does her status update really mean?

Image Source modified by Alyssa J Freitas

Once I got to high school and was allowed to get on the Facebook bandwagon, I really just didn’t want to. Although it is widely used in college (mainly as a stalking tool to see if that guy at the party last night is really as cute as you thought…) I still remain a virgin of the Facebook.

The only site that I was truly excited to sign up for was Pinterest. I can never get enough of the pins. So. Many. Pins. Instagram is definitely a fun one and I enjoy seeing pictures that my friends take. However, I had opened an account, closed it, and then reopened it. I closed it because I started obsessively checking to see how many likes my pictures would get, and would find myself feeling disappointed if the number didn’t increase. I quickly realized that this was not good and figured if I was only using it for gratification that wasn’t really a valid reason to use it at all. But fear not, I am now reformed and am not posting for the likes!

I am completely and utterly new to Twitter. I’m still pretty unsure of the etiquette of the site in terms of how often is too often to Tweet and the use of hashtags, but I am starting to get the hang of it. However, I do not like that some users seem to Tweet so often that my home feed is basically his/her every thought, seemingly Tweeted without consideration as to if this is really something everyone who follows him/her needs to know. Am I perhaps missing something here?

As long as social media is used to positively connect people and help brands engage with their customers, it seems to me that it is good. If, as appears to often be the case, it is used to make others feel bad or as a measure of self worth, it is not a good thing to put in the center of your life.

What do you think? How do you keep it simple with social media?