I was never too obsessed with social media. In my middle school days, I had good ol' AIM and would chat with my friends for a little while after school. And even though I was pretty early to the Facebook party, I only posted from time to time. Around my junior and senior year of high school, I found myself putting up more statuses, commenting on more pictures, liking this, sharing that, etc. Around that same time, my girlfriend and I began dating, so we were both putting pictures up and posting about each other.
The summer before we went off to college, I worked two jobs at about 60 hours a week. Needless to say, a few things had to be cut. Social media was one of the first. On my lunch break, I may have scrolled through my Instagram feed and see what's happening on Twitter, but I also had to respond to e-mails for work and catch up on things for my other job. I practically vanished from the digital realm. Not long after, I realized something: the little time I did spend with my girlfriend, family, and friends, was so much more meaningful then it had been before. I had always preferred face-to-face interaction, but for some reason I had a whole new perspective on it.
When I finally left for college, I did not add everyone I met on Facebook, nor did I follow my hall-mates. Instead, I simply went out with people. My girlfriend had gotten used to this, and almost got annoyed with our friends who would stare at their phone most of the time we were with them. I feel backing away from social media strengthened our relationship, and strengthens the new ones we make.
Over all good blog post , I feel as you took your time writing this . You stated during your younger days , you really didn’t use social media that often . During the times you did use social media , how much of that do you think impacted you in sometime of way? You stated that your girlfriend got annoyed with your friends for being on there phones so much. Do you think phones have changed people in a negative way, making it so people can’t communicate in person? I like that you talked about how social media had split you from your friends , but also brought you back together with those same friends later down the road.
ReplyDeleteI can absolutely identify with your post. I too used social media sparingly when I was younger. Over time, my posts began to get more frequent, my significant other and I posted pictures and quotes back and forth and I began to get lost in technology. When I moved back to Mansfield to go to school here, I found my life way too chaotic to be bothering with social media as much. I began to disconnect from social media slowly but surely. I still have all of my accounts but I do not use them for much other than school. Being a communication major, I am all the time having to post for this or that but when it comes to my personal life, my posts are very limited. I agree when you say that backing away from social media strengthens relationships but then again everything is good in moderation.
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