Recently, this little app called Timehop has ruined my life. OK, not really. But I've definitely been shown a lot of reasons why anyone under the age of 15 should not have any social media accounts. Now, I am not a parent, but I bet a lot of parents agree with me on this one. A lot of things have changed on the internet since I opened my first social media account at the ripe age of 12. I remember it just like it was yesterday, it was 2009 and Facebook was becoming very popular. I was setting up my account when suddenly it wouldn't let me select "1997" as my birth year because that would have violated Facebook's rule of being 13 or older to have an account. So being the rebel that I am, I selected "1995" as my birth year and went on my merry way to the heavenly realm of Facebook. Now I know why Facebook wanted me to be 13 and so I'm here to share why you should be just a little bit older to have any social media accounts.
1. You will be so embarrassed when you look back on your past photos, statuses and/or tweets.
Oh man. Timehop has made me cringe every single day since I installed it (I honestly don't know why I keep it around). All of those "Inbox me a number and I'll post a TBH about you!" or pictures of you making the duck face with your flare jeans, Sperrys and Aeropostale shirt. Trust me on this one, you won't want to be reminded of 6th and 7th grade. Leave those days where they belong.
2. Honestly, no one cares what you ate for breakfast/lunch/dinner.
For some reason I thought it was a really good idea to post a picture or status about what I ate for breakfast every day. Not a good idea at all. I don't know why I seemed to think that people cared that I had two bowls of Frosted Flakes for breakfast that morning. So, just know now that people may 'like' your photo, but they don't really care at all.
3. You'll be so embarrassed when you look back at your past photos, statuses and/or tweets.
OK, obviously this one is really important because I've already said it once. Your photos you post will actually make you want to hide under a rock when you're older –– I promise. Just save yourself a lot of pain and don't get any social media until you're at least 15, please.
4. No one needs to know what you're doing every second of the day.
As a seventh grader, I thought it was deemed OK to update my statues about six times per day to let the 20 Facebook friends I had know what I was doing if they ever needed to find me. If you just have to have an account, do us all a favor (including your future self) and don't post multiple times per day. Please.
5. There's a lot of bad people out there.
This is the most important reason of them all. We've all heard horror stories of kids being kidnapped because of things that happen on social media, and honestly I think it's because kids are too young and naive to tell the difference between an actual good person with good intentions and a person that seems like a good person with good intentions who is actually a "predator." I know we've all heard that you can't trust everyone you meet on the internet, and that's really true. Even as an older teenager I still get follow requests from people I don't know, and some of those people are really sketchy. So if you're going to have social media make sure that your accounts are set to private, and even then do not "friend" of follow anyone you don't know.
Now I understand why I wasn't able to create a Facebook account at 12 years old. Someone definitely should have stopped me. Back then I had no shame, but recently it has become increasingly popular for my friends to go back years on my profile and make those awful pictures resurface. So kids, listen to your mom when she says that you don't need a social media account. It'll save you a lot of embarrassment down the road, and protect your innocence for just a few more years.
