In a World Where If There Isn't an Instagram, It Didn't Happen...
By Kelly Kinas ‘17
Much like most other college students, I constantly use social media. To stay relevant, you need to tweet 5-6 times a day. If you Instagram more than two photos a day, all of your followers will be annoyed with you and unfollow you. Do not send anyone game requests on Facebook because no one actually wants to help you play Farmville. I feel the need to post about my life on all of my social medias because that’s how people know I did them. If I don’t have a photo to show someone, did I really go to Venice or did I just watch The West Wing on Netflix all day? The line continues to blur on whether social media is for those who want to show off their lives or is it actually to stay in touch with old high school friends and family members? Social Media- positive or nah?
There are multiple ways to look at social media. It can be a way to connect or it could be a way for the government to watch you. After the whole NSA scandal, more people in the US understand that if you put something out on the internet, on your Facebook or any of the others, EVERYONE can see it. These websites have cookies, which keep your information so they can market to you easier and find ads that relate to the searches on your computer. Is that too far? Is that information private? Technically speaking, it is helpful because you might find a cool new website that fits your style but it is lightly weird that they know what I’m searching and use that to advertise to me.
I believe that going onto the internet and social media, you know that you are always being watched. It is hilarious to me that recruiters still need to tell people to watch what they post on social media. People, especially college students in my generation, feel the need to let everyone know what they are doing. The music you are listening to on Spotify is linked to your Facebook so your Facebook friends can see what great music taste you have. Everything is interconnected and a lot of people don’t understand that. If you post a picture of yourself doing a keg stand, no matter how fast you delete off twitter, it’s still there.
Our entire lives are projected on this screen, either computer screen or iPhone screen. It is hardwired in my brain to check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat before I get out of bed. I am afraid that I might miss something if I don’t. I also check the Washington Post and Huffington Post but a lot of people in my position on read the Twitter headlines and not the whole story. It is shortening our attention span. Getting over 200 up votes on a Yik Yak is more important than doing your homework. People spend hours trying to come up with the perfect way to word a tweet that is hilarious, thought invoking, and fits into 140 characters.
I’m not saying technology is bad or the social media is bad. We, as the majority of users, need to be careful on how much we rely on it. It shouldn’t be the only way we find out information but that’s hard to do now that CNN and Fox News are now quoting tweets and Facebook posts as news.
From the other side, social media has been a fantastic new invention for our generation. It has been integrated into society and companies. My dream job is to work on the social media image of brands like Coke or companies like Buzzfeed. Now that social media is important to a company’s image, they need to know how to use it. Luckily for us, we know how to use it. Social media does not need to be used in only a personal way. It can be used for companies to interact with customers, get feedback, and allow the customers to see how the company works which hopeful leads to trusting the company more. These jobs will be going to our generation because we know how to use them. While some people might say our generation is obsessed with social media, I need to understand every single thing about social media if I want to make a job out of it. I better know when to post an Instagram to make sure the most amount of people see it. This is my domain and I can use that to help companies and get myself a job. If I can make money off doing this, why the hell not?
If you didn’t post an Instagram, did it still happen? Yes, yes it did. Just because someone else didn’t see you do something does not make it less significant. Use social media to show off the best you, your Chipotle, and your Kate Spade purse. But in the end, just use it how you want as long as it doesn’t hurt your chances later in life. I use it to tell my parents that I’m still alive and having a great time in college because my mom doesn’t believe me if she doesn’t see it herself. Enjoy your time and tweet when you feel like it. Other people’s opinions do not matter, no matter how hard social media tries to makes us believe it. Do you, man.
Oh, and Fight On! Beat the Bruins!
