Social media grew as I did, therefore, I don’t know if I can say it changed me as much as it’s always shaped my existence. I’ve never known the things that I love reading about in 19th century novels- the anxiety of waiting for a letter from the man I love, or only knowing of the world by reading books in a library. All I’ve known is the ability to be connected. I don’t think being constantly connected is a negative thing, I am more politically educated and socially aware than any generation before me. Just today checking my twitter feed I was connected to global news like Starbucks’ pledge to hire refugees,
Starbucks pledges to hire 10,000 refugees over five years in the 75 countries where it does business https://t.co/oOnPPKdhVv pic.twitter.com/2zTxsrGhuv
— CNN (@CNN) January 30, 2017
as well as historical insights that I may have never come across.
How a Jewish woman’s poem helped make the Statue of Liberty what it is today https://t.co/HyWVJ7e6Uy pic.twitter.com/MqbET8cQ6F
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) January 30, 2017
This amount of content is something I am used to as a privileged 21 year old, so much so that I expect to be able to know everything, all at once. I think where social media has made the most difference in shaping me, is sheltering me from those with differing opinions. Although these opinions are available for me to see online, I have the ability to ignore them. Thomas L. Friedman wrote an op-ed piece for the NYT where he argues that social media is better at “breaking things than making them,” due to our the fact that, “we tend to only communicate with people that we agree with, and thanks to social media, we can mute, un-follow and block everybody else.” I agree with his sentiments, I feel that my social media feeds are self-designed only to fuel my beliefs, as opposed to exposing the truth in others’. In the future I hope social media does not make us complacent in our journey to learn and connect, but only supports it to grow further.