Social media: the phenomenon that has firmly rooted itself into the life of the modern, 21st-century human being. We spend about two hours per day perusing social networks, caught up in the endless, ever-growing stream of likes, favorites, shares, followers, statuses, trends…
When we think about social media, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine immediately spring to mind. But what we don’t often think about is how these platforms affect our very being. And whether or not these effects are positive or negative.
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As a rising sophomore at Georgetown, I had the pleasure of spending my summer working at a local summer camp in my New Jersey hometown. I worked with kids ranging from kindergarteners to pre-teens, spending every weekday applying countless bandages to scraped knees and playing infinite amounts of dodge ball and four square.
At 19 years old, I don’t consider myself very far removed from childhood. I’d classify myself as a “young adult,” fully capable of interacting with adults but still very much relatable to younger kids. Despite this, I was shocked to see the true measure of social media’s intrusion into the lives of today’s youngest generation. I fully realize that the previous sentence makes me sound like a paranoid, out-of-touch helicopter parent, but it’s completely true.
All day, 10-year-old campers would take Snapchats with each other, watch the newest Vines, post a constant barrage of tweets, and discuss Instagram follower counts. Honestly, I think this is a dilemma that should be given more attention.
Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I frequent all of the most popular platforms every single day of my life—taking Snapchats, watching the newest Vines, posting the occasional tweet, and… not really using Instagram all that much. But I hate how social media forces people to edit themselves, to project an image that will be the most widely accepted among others. Apps like Instagram and Snapchat actively encourage people to filter their own appearances, essentially sending the message that individuality isn’t all that important in life. Additionally, on social media, the value of a post or a tweet lies in the amount of likes/favorites it receives. Idiosyncratic or quirky posts on Twitter don’t often get favorites, but tweets about the latest trend or a cliché viewpoint are virtually guaranteed to be popular. As a result, social media teaches users that being unique isn’t valuable and that pandering to the wider audience will reap benefits in the form of favorites and likes.
That’s why I’m concerned with the fact that the majority of today’s American middle schoolers use social media extensively. Growing up is all about discovering your own identity—including passions, values, and beliefs. Social media discourages the formation of a personal identity, instead, rewarding users who promote the most popular, generally accepted version of themselves. I’ll readily admit that I don’t share the “real” me on my various social network accounts. Indeed, the pressure to post popular tweets, statuses, snap stories, etc. is too overwhelming.
Kids in middle school are exceptionally impressionable (or at least I definitely was). With the prevalence of social media in their lives, there’s no denying that platforms like Twitter and Instagram are making an impact on the formation of their personal identities. I feel lucky that I didn’t have to deal with issues like Twitter follower ratios, Instagram likes, and Snapchat scores as a 12-year-old kid. Social media didn’t truly blow up until sophomore/junior year of high school in my town, and even then I felt a bit disconcerted about it.
In any case, it’s hard enough to forge your own identity, and it’s becoming even harder in the modern age of social media.
