Blog #1

As a college student in today's day and age, it's hard to remember when I didn't have a social media account. Although I've been lucky enough to grow up in a society where it's very easy to post whatever you want, I haven't always felt that way toward it. For example, when I was younger, I would post just about anything on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. If I was going to the mall with my friends, I would post about it. I would post a picture on Instagram without overanalyzing it or worrying about how many likes I got on a picture. However, this changed when I was in high school. I would overthink everything I would post on Twitter, Instagram, etc. because of wanting to fit in with my friends. As with many others, overthinking and overanalyzing what I post on social media is when I begin to feel completely overwhelmed by it. 

Since being in college, my feelings toward social media have gotten a lot better, but part of me still worries about what I post and how it makes me look to my followers. Today, I mainly use my social media accounts to keep up with my friends and stay up to date on trends and entertainment. I currently use Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat, and YouTube. Even though I use all of these social media platforms, I don’t post a ton of stuff. Instead, I just watch/like what others are posting, so I often find myself getting lost in the pressure of needing to post something all the time. 

To start off, the social media account that I don’t really use is Facebook. I’ve had a Facebook account since I was 11, so I’m sure if you scroll back far enough you can find stuff on my wall from middle school. Now, I never post anything on my Facebook account, and I don’t really check my feed unless someone tagged me in a post. In terms of the way I feel toward Facebook, I just don’t really feel a pressure or need to use it. 

My most used social media platform is probably Instagram. I don’t really post on Instagram in the first place, but I like to keep up with my friends and family. Also, I like to keep up with celebrities, so I follow a lot of my favorite athletes and musicians. 

In terms of my own account, I know that a popular trend on Instagram right now is having an “aesthetically pleasing” feed, but I could never do it just because I would probably forget what filter I used or the exact brightness I put on a photo. The way that my profile looks has never really been something that I’ve worried about, but I have caught myself thinking about how often I post pictures of myself or pictures with a friend or a teammate. For example, I wouldn’t post back to back pictures of just myself. My Instagram account differs from all of my other social media accounts because I feel like it only shows the highlights of my life or my “best self”. 

Even though I don’t really post on Instagram, I’m very active on it. I send direct messages to my friends and family, like/comment on pictures, and watch stories. Although I actively use Instagram, sometimes I feel very overwhelmed when watching stories, especially if I haven’t checked the app in a couple of hours. I’m definitely one of those people who have to watch every story in order to just make them go away, so I often find myself not really “watching” them, but just tapping through them. 

My Twitter account is almost the same as Instagram in terms of posting my own content. I mainly use Twitter for funny videos and memes, so you’ll really only find retweets on my account. Just like my use of Instagram, I often find myself only liking tweets or sending tweets to my friends. I rarely post my own tweets on my main account but having to tweet every day for this class has kind of allowed me to not worry about the pressure of who sees my tweets. I think the anxiety that I used to feel about social media still plays a part in my presence on Twitter, but it doesn’t bother me as much because I feel like a lot of people my age use Twitter the same way that I do. This means using it to pass time or sharing funny videos with your friends. The way I feel toward Twitter is different than Instagram because on Instagram I feel like you have to actively use it all the time in order to keep your followers interested. 

As for Snapchat, I really only use it to communicate with my friends. I only post on my Snapchat story when I see something funny or when my teammates are doing something ridiculous. However, I do have Snapchat streaks with a variety of friends, but half the time we don’t even say anything to each other. When it comes to watching stories, I feel the exact same way about them on Snapchat as I do with Instagram. I mainly just watch them to make them go away, but if one of my friends post something, I typically watch it or comment on it. Even with all of the “shows” that are offered on Snapchat now, I only watch Phone Swap, but even then, I don’t freak out when a new episode is released. It’s more of something that I watch when I literally have nothing else to do and I’m tired of scrolling through my most used social media apps. 

Although I still have some anxiety towards posting on social media, I recently realized that as long as I post what I want and what I like, I shouldn’t worry about what my followers think of me or if they like what I’m posting. I learned to not be a perfectionist when it comes to posting whatever I want, which allows me to become more genuine and portray more of my “true” self online.