Social media has changed a lot of things these past few years. For instance, it has changed how we connect with friends. Sadly, it has turned into the only way some of us communicate with each other. Instead of texting a friend to see how they are, we go on their social media. The need to be constantly communicating decreases because we think we’ve seen everything about their lives.
We don’t realize how selective we’ve become with what we post. We don’t realize our friends are only showing us a highlight reel of their college experiences, relationships, summer vacations and so on. They don’t realize you’re showing them your highlight reel. Instead of broadcasting our entire life online, we show a glimpse of what it is like.
We’ve changed from when Facebook first came out. Remember that? You listed all your friends as your “family.” Your statuses were song lyrics. Being “official” only meant being Facebook official. Everything you did was documented on Facebook. We learned there are consequences to what we put online. We learned if you put something on the Internet you can never take it back. We learned not only our ex-boyfriends, but potential employers can see what we post.
I think we're being selective with what we post because we realized using social media gives up certain privacies. It’s sometimes hard to voice your opinion because everyone else is so passionate about their own. Posting things on our social media was a way to express ourselves. Now people think it’s an invitation to “correct” opinions.
On top of worrying about what we say on social media, we now have to worry about what we say over text messages because of screenshots. Computers now track our every move online. Companies find out what brands we're interested in and target us by placing retargeted ads for those brands every time we go on the Internet.
At first, we didn't know any better, we wanted the world to know everything about us. Now, I think it is safe to say we want a little privacy. Except nothing we say and nothing we do is private anymore.
Our privacy is gone.
