Judging by the date on my first Facebook profile picture, I was baptized in the church of social media on August 6, 2010. That means it must have been August 5 when I tried to explain Facebook to my mom. I can still hear her voice, heavy with late boomer Internet skepticism, asking “What do you need that for?”

My reasoning was that all of my friends had accounts. They were all at the Facebook Fiesta, posting pictures and poking each other while I was sitting at home alone and being lame. I felt that I was missing out.

“Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.” – Erica Jong #FOMO

— Zachary Sexton (@zwsexton) September 1, 2016

This “FOMO” is what brought me to social media in the first place. It’s the organizational power of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, however, that keeps me checking my notifications.

Everything I could ever want to read about, look at, and listen to is conveniently collected and dumped onto my timeline. I can’t remember the last time I went on a news site and perused headlines. A large chunk of my online activity is directed at me through social media. This, of course, has its downside in terms of “filtering the world I see,” but it also helps guide me through an internet overflowing with information and find what I think is important.

This ties back to the old FOMO element. As I assume is the case with many of us, I want to know what’s happening to people on both broad and personal levels. It’s an age-old desire to discover, learn and connect with people. If I was alive in the 1930’s, I’d be listening to the radio, reading magazines and sending letters. Social media is what allows me to do this today and has made it much easier than it used to be.

I do think social media is convenient. It makes it easy to contact people and to stay in touch with them. There are perks.

— Kelstar (@kellybronner) September 10, 2016