Social media bring so many people into our lives; a large number of whom we probably don’t know in “real life.” I have upwards of 1,000 “friends” on Facebook, and several hundred followers on Instagram and Twitter. I’m sure we’ve all scrolled through our newsfeed on whatever platform and seen posts from names and faces we don’t entirely recognize. Millennials, like myself, have grown up with this social media culture that values how many followers or “friends” we have. It’s almost as if our self worth and identity are tied directly to how many likes our latest post got, or how many followers we have compared to our peers.
As teachers, and with today's society, let's always remind our "kids" that self worth does not come from social media. #youareenough pic.twitter.com/bnTADgDDDU
— Jennifer Broussard (@JBroussardWJH) December 5, 2016
Social media can be places to go to watch funny cat videos, read the news, or see what your friends are up to. But social media let us create our own versions of ourselves. In this virtual world we control exactly what content and pictures we post for our “friends” to see, making sure to construct a profile of the precise image we want to project to the world. Social media have changed the way I interact with others to the way I consume news.
3 Ways #SocialMedia Is Changing How #Millennials Consume #News https://t.co/GJogjbsNuA pic.twitter.com/NQYd0spUeU
— Millennial Week (@MillennialWeek) December 30, 2016
Most importantly, social media have changed the way I look at friendship; making me more uncertain of what true friendship looks like. Is a “like” on a photo, or “Happy Birthday!” on a Facebook wall what friendship in the digital age is all about? Even though I have more than 1,000 “friends” on Facebook, how many of them do I really know? Because after all I’m only seeing a controlled and carefully crafted image of exactly what each “friend” wants me to see.