At the moment, I’m currently enrolled in WRD 265, which is a class on Digital Cultural and the importance of media. Throughout my time in the class, I’ve had to do a good amount of reflecting on my own social media habits in comparison to my peers. For me, social media has never been a huge aspect of my life. If I like something or want to share it with people I know, then sure, I’ll post it. However, unlike a lot of people my age, I’ve just never been that concerned with the amount of followers or likes that I have. I’ve also never felt a need to be extremely active, as I’m a more private person and don’t feel that I do a lot that is post-worthy.
However, I’ve been surprised to hear comments from my friends like “Megan you don’t post enough” or genuine concern that if they don’t post for awhile, “people will forget about them and unfollow or they won’t get as many likes.” Honestly, it’s shocking to me that people my age are that concerned with their online presence, considering it’s just one small aspect of social expression. Don’t get me wrong, I think social media is fun and all, but I think it gets to an excessive point when people are that concerned about how others are judging their online personalities. I truly don’t believe there’s any set form of rules for how to properly use social media. For me, I’ll stick to posting whenever I feel the need to.
I completely agree with you. I think people, especially teens, are starting place their personal value on whether or not they get a hundred likes or four-hundred followers (I don’t even know that many people, let alone want strangers commenting on my pictures but that’s just me). However, a lot of my friends express similar concerns to your friends; they are obsessed with posting at “prime time” (later in the evening) to make sure they get the most likes as possible. Overall, I think it’s sad that we are now placing such a high value on what other people think about us. I think people should remember that your self worth is not dictated by what others think about your Instagram posts.
I’ve had much of the same experience with my friends’ and my own social media habits. As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve fallen victim to trivial concern over social media, too. My social media habits are a lot like yours, I’ll post when I want to which isn’t all that often, and I don’t have many followers. But so many people have placed so much value on social media it that I can’t help but think about likes and followers when I do. I just remind myself of how unimportant those details are in the grand scheme of life. I just wish more people would remind themselves too.