From AIM to Snapchat

Even after self-reflection, I cannot decide if social media has changed me for the better or for the worse. The first time I interacted with any form of social media was when I created a Facebook account. After that, the social media landslide began. Out went the hot pink razor phone and AIM and in came the blackberry and BBM, and then the iPhone and Instagram, and then so much more.

It has certainly transformed the way our generation communicates with one another but instead of making it easier, I feel it makes it harder to truly “connect” with people. It is so easy to look at someone’s Instagram and see a happy person enjoying himself or herself wherever they are in the world, but in reality, these highly curated photos are hiding a personal struggle. For me, social media adds an additional pressure because if everyone around you seems to be having the best time of their life, then it makes you question what is going wrong in yours. At the same time, social media has created a space to connect with new people and explore interests that would have never been possible before with things like the infamous hashtag.

This is why it is hard for me to really define how social media has changed me because on the surface level it seems as though it has done so in only bad ways but when I dig a little deeper I find that it has created a new way for me to expand on my knowledge.

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