Tag: Social Media

  • TikTok at All Hours of the Clock

    With over 33 million downloads, TikTok has become a very popular media platform that has risen to the top. Although many people may say that it’s a cringey app, I think otherwise. Well at first I didn’t actually. I once found myself among the several people who would claim themselves to be against TikTok. I’ll admit, I would even judge the people around me, such as my friends whenever I would see them making or posting their videos.

    My obsession with TikTok began just like any other person who is now making videos on the platform. I only downloaded the app as a joke, not thinking I’ll find any pleasure in the content it provided. At first I wouldn’t go on the app very often and even almost uninstalled it at some point. However, after more and more of the people I look up to on YouTube began using it, I found myself following them and before I knew it, I couldn’t even bring myself to close the app.

    I may have published a couple videos at some point,but I don’t really enjoy making them as much as others. Moreover, I definitely don’t enjoy showing my face to a bunch of strangers. People such as y cousin and best friend may do it, but I think just having downloaded the app is plenty outside my comfort zone for me. All in all, while I may enjoy the people who make content on the app, but I can guarantee that I will never make any videos of myself dancing or following along with the weird trends that go around just at an attempt to go vial and become “TikTok famous” as they say.

    Sadly enough TikTok has consumed much of my life.There have been situations where I have been in the middle of conversations through text with people, and end up forgetting to reply to them because I get distracted with TikTok. There has even been a certain weekend where I accidentally found myself staying up till the sun rose all because I stayed up all night on TikTok. This is something I definitely did not do before TikTok.

    The impacts TikTok has left in my life have not been very good, and that is exactly why I have decided to give myself a break from it. I don’t go on it as much as I used to (although I do still use it more than other apps) but I feel better about it as well. I would definitely not recommend people to download it unless you want to get hooked. By the way this is a joke, I do still have a life.

  • A Social Virus

    I personally think social media is a virus to our mental health. It is a magnet for us to compare our lives to others instead of focusing on our own. We idolize celebrities and influencers for living extravagantly, literally wasting money because they can. I am tired of the constant hype for new fashion trends and sales plastered on my feed. It’s like we never get a break to enjoy the current season before the next is shoved down our throats by ads for new makeup palettes, shoes, and clothing.

    Majority of us look at our phones as soon as we get up to see what happened while we were sleeping. A lot of the time using social media for an excessive amount of time can cause us to have a lower self esteem, decrease the amount of time for self improvement, disrupt our sleeping patterns, and cut us off from socializing in person.

    Instead of living in a materialistic society, always worried about the next big thing, we should just use social media as a way to connect with people and send a positive message. Lets bring eachother up and use platforms to educate ourselves on what is going on in the world around us.

  • If You Want to Talk, Come Find Me

    If You Want to Talk, Come Find Me

    Look around at any given moment and you will most likely see people attached to their phones, eyes fixated on screens, drool possibly spilling from their mouths.

    Though it probably seems like everyone has had a touchscreen baby since the prehistoric era, the birth of the smartphone we know and obsess over today only occurred about eight years ago. Revolutionizing the way we communicate, portable technological devices have taken over the lives of an estimated seventy-three percent of people in the U.S. alone. This all seems dandy, but with technology comes the rise of social media, also known as the reason eye-contact and genuine conversations freak you out.

    Social media is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “forms of electronic communication in which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.” In reality, social media has become a platform for superficial ideals, obnoxious thoughts, and unrealistic expectations, creating competitive undertones amongst youth with a quick double tap.

    If you didn’t post it, did it actually happen? People are eager to document everything now, from a tornado coming straight towards them to a deadly fight.  Obsessed with capturing every single moment, we fail to live in them.

    People underestimate how much influence social media has on them. Likes and followers are closely associated with popularity, commonly thought to be the same thing. Women’s self-esteem is often dependent on the amount of likes, followers, and retweets they receive, comparing themselves to ‘Insta-famous’ sex symbols that attract millions of followers. The concept of followers and likes has morphed into the determining factors of self-worth, making people desperate to reach the unrealistic goals of perfection that social media community enforces.

    The way we interact and develop relationships with each other has been permanently altered by social media. We live in an age where before you even meet someone you can know an outrageous amount of information about them. Privacy is a thing of the past; nowadays, our closest friends and family, phone numbers, and even our addresses are available to anyone who can click search. Gone are the days of meeting your true love by chance; we now scroll through snapshots of potential partners as if flipping through a magazine. Bold comments of heart-eye emojis on your crush’s latest post translate into awkward exchanges passing one another in the hall.

    Where do we stand as a society by allowing social media to determine our self – worth and moral values? One might say social media is a creative outlet that allows people to network and make “friends”, but I strongly disagree. Some recognize social networks as nothing more than a tool to enhance their social status and express themselves. Others rely on the volume of positive responses they receive from friends and foes alike as a barometer of their beauty and value amongst their network of peers. If this is only the beginning of the “feeding-frenzy,” imagine what the future holds. If this world is going to be one of faux online personas and Twitter fights, I’m not interested.  If you want to talk, come find me below the rock I live under.