In this generation, it is rare to meet an individual who does not interact with others through social media. Social media has grown to be a huge part of my life and impact how I behave. My first form of social media, like many others, was the creation of my Facebook account. I created my Facebook account when I was in sixth grade, not because I thought I needed one or really even wanted one, but because everyone in my school had one and I thought I should keep up on the trends. From this point on social media has impacted my life tremendously.

Looking back on my early posts of Facebook I cringe. Now I use Facebook as a more professional platform. I typically only upload photos as memories and avoid having statuses. Back in middle school, I thought it was normal to update my friends on the smallest things of my daily life. After middle school Facebook basically died. I did not log onto my account for approximately 4 years because newer and more exciting social media platforms arrived. There was a revival for Facebook for me around my senior year of high school because I had to present myself in a normal way, and not have someone look me up and only see my 7^th grade self. Now in college, I use Facebook regularly to keep updated on important things in my life like sorority news.

Other platforms of social media that have strongly impacted my life include Instagram and snapchat. The arrival of Instagram was a game changer. Facebook was great for the photos, but I had no desire to hear about individuals’ statuses. Instagram took away the importance of a status and made the entire platform revolve around the photos. Instagram to this day is very relevant to my life, because you can tailor your photo to how you want people to see you. It is honestly a very fake way of representing yourself.

Snapchat is the most informal form of my social media. In the beginning snapchat was used to communicate small things or simply funny situations to your friends. I still do this occasionally, but now the majority of the time I am sending mindless photos of my face to keep my “streak” with people going. Snapchat for me is almost a job because I have to remember to send the same photo to the same people every day.

A small quirk or difference about my social media use compared to others, is that I do not have a twitter account and never have. I find twitter to be pointless because it simply taking away everything I loved about Facebook and Instagram and leaving me with only status updates that I do not care about.