For most of my high school career, I didn’t have a huge amount of social media, and I was very proud of it, perhaps too proud. I repeatedly denied requests by my friends and sometimes family to get certain apps, such as Snapchat and Instagram. In fact, the only social media I had in my high school days was YouTube and Reddit, and I used both on a regular basis. However, once I got to college, it was a slippery slope.
It started with Snapchat, since a lot of my friends when I first started freshman year used it for planning events and trips and other such things. I eventually cracked and got Snapchat for the sole purpose of communicating with my friends, which is still the main use I have for this app. Others soon followed, including Spotify, which I finally realized was better than Apple Music and (this is a weird one) Letterboxd.
There was one, however, that was the bane of my existence: Instagram, arguably the most prevalent social media of today. I was certain that I wouldn’t ever get it, I wasn’t about to become an Instagram poster. But not even two weeks into summer, there I was downloading this app. This was mainly by the request of some friends, who were sending me Instagram links that would open in my browser. Something funny about Instagram is that it really, really wants you to get an account and never get rid of it. Instagram in browser is an awful experience and is much better in the app, which you need an account for. I told myself that I would get the app for the sole purpose of receiving funny posts from friends, and not really tell anyone about it. As it turns out, Instagram is also really good at connecting you with people, because even though I didn’t link my Facebook or phone number, two of my best friends figured out that I had it by the end of the day.
You may be asking yourselves, “What’s my point with all this? I honestly don’t give a crap about Doran’s social media habits.” And this is fair, I suppose. When I got Instagram, I found myself liking it a lot more than I thought I would. People post interesting things, my friends can send me funny videos, and even Reels are (sometimes) entertaining to me. So I started asking myself, why didn’t I want to get Instagram before now? I think a lot of the answer lies with what I’ve seen people do with social media. I’ve heard of, and seen, a lot of people getting pulled into social media with no hope of getting out. People who are being bullied, comparing themselves to others, or are just addicted. I suppose I didn’t want something like that for myself, especially because I haven’t always been the most self-confident person. But not all social media is like that, and I think knowing how to stay away from that kind of stuff on the internet is a very good thing.
I think that social media is, overall, a good thing, but I think that knowing what you want from a certain social media is incredibly important before even downloading the app. Take Letterboxd for example, which I mentioned earlier. This app is for reviewing movies primarily, and your friends that you follow can see what movies you’ve been watching. I’ve had the app for a few years now, but haven’t really used it until more recently. I think this is because I hadn’t realized what I really wanted from this app, which I guess is to share movies, but also to stay in touch with people and find out what sorts of media they’re into these days. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date with people in a unique way.
At the end of the day, of course nothing will beat a face-to-face interaction with another person, and I prefer that infinitely more to interacting via text or social media. But when it comes down to it, you aren’t always going to be able to catch up or talk to someone face-to-face. Sometimes that’s simply not an option. Knowing what we want from social media before getting it I think is a must if we don’t want to drown in it.
Still not getting TikTok though; you can’t make me.
