I interviewed a friend from my hall about her use of social media. I know she uses different platforms for different purposes, and figured that interviewing her would be fitting for this assignment. She utilizes Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and Snapchat the most. I use Instagram and Snapchat as well, but don’t have a Facebook and haven’t updated my Tumblr blog in over two years. She mainly commented on how social media has impacted her life and why she uses it in the first place. Her comment that stood out to me the most was when she said that she quickly loses interest in social media because she often feels as if she can’t “live up” to other people’s lifestyles. As a result, she takes long breaks from her social media after she loses this interest. For example, she just recently posted her first picture on Instagram in over a year, whereas I’ve posted many more within this past year.

I found her feeling very interesting, as I’ve never felt this way when using social media, but can definitely understand where she was coming from. My friend also commented on how her social media habits have changed since coming to college, as she tends to use snapchat a lot more frequently. I tend to use snapchat more as well, since it’s a fast and easy way to communicate with new friends. She also commented that she is pretty exclusive in who she lets follow her, since she keeps her accounts on private or only accepts certain friend requests on Facebook or Snapchat. This made me reflect on my own social media accounts, as I keep mine pretty public to the world. However, her input made me consider changing this.