Growing up, technology was never a big deal. I would go outside with my neighbors after school and play until we were called in. In the summer, I would practically live outside. The most that I would do on a computer would be Typhoon Lagoon at my friend’s house, or playing on Disney and Nickelodeon sites. This would be my life until about 4th grade, when ‘instant messaging’ came along. Everybody in my class was talking about it, so I asked my parents if I can make an e-mail address. I remember this being a big deal, because screennames and instant messaging was fairly new for kids my age. I listed off names of my friends who had it, so that my parents would say yes to me having one. Eventually they did, and my dad set me up an aol.com e-mail. I still remember the username to this day: [email protected]. As embarrassing as that is, I chose that all myself. For me, this was a big deal. It was my first excuse to go onto my computer and do something instead of playing outside or watching tv.
I think back to how I felt during this time in my life, when I thought that having a screen name and being able to instant message was the coolest thing. I would sit on my home computer and instant message my friends, whom I just saw in school. I even remember the corny ‘slang’ that we would use, or status updates I would make on my instant messenger. “wyd?” “nmjc, wbu?” Eventually, instant messaging became the thing to do, and I no longer found it exciting and fun.
At about 6th grade, a bunch of my classmates and friends started to get Myspaces. Myspace is a thing of the past now, but it’s main purpose would be for music groups, blogs, and friends to chat. My parents were completely against Myspace, because there were so many scammers and creepy people on that site that would pretend that they were one person but be somebody completely different. “There’s so many articles on the news talking about Myspace, Shannon. I would seriously stay away from that website.” I heard this spiel every time my mom heard something else about a hacker or a pedophile on the news. Usually, I wouldn’t pay attention and just ‘yeah, i know’ her to death. Since I was more influenced by my friends than my parents, I made one anyways.I'm pretty sure I made it some cheesy immature nickname, like shannxox or something, most likely influenced by my friends. I would secretly use it without my parent’s permission, but eventually, the guilt came over me and I deleted it.
In 7th grade, I was finally allowed to have a Facebook, but only if my older sister set it up for me. A bunch of my friends were just joining Facebook at the time, so naturally, I needed to have one as well. My sister created it and adjusted the privacy settings for me. Having a Facebook for the first time gave me the same excitement as having my first screen name; it was like a new world to me. There were so many things to learn about the site, as in who I could become ‘friends’ with and what pages I could like. I gravely looked back at my old statuses from my first years on Facebook, and oh, am I embarrassed. There were many more "great" Facebook statuses, but due to my pride, I will keep those in the dark.
As time went on, I then went on to create a Twitter, but mostly to follow my favorite celebrity at the time, Justin Bieber. After getting my first iPhone my sophomore year, I made a Snapchat and an Instagram.
Social media hasn’t always been good to me. It has caused many fights, arguments, and uncomfortable situations. The biggest issue would be between friends. The drama would either be one friend talking about another friend, or a couple of friends hanging out and posting it on social media, but excluding someone else and them finding out, causing an argument. Growing up, I would try not to get myself involved in these situations, simply because I would never want to do that to my friends. Everything was fine, until it happened to me. What good friends, right? It was middle school (the darker times), and my so-called friends all went and saw a movie together. All of them. And I had to see all of it on Facebook. At that moment, I knew that they were not my friends, and decided to part ways. Social media may have its perks, but this specific situation taught me that social media can be a dangerous game.
In total, I have two active email addresses, my Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram. One email is personal, and the other one is my Rowan account. Technically, I still have my other emails ([email protected] and [email protected]), but I would only use those to give my email to retail stores for coupons and deals. It is crazy to look back on the times when none of these sites existed, because I am constantly checking my phone and checking these sites.
These social media pages have made such an impact on my life, both good and bad. One bad part is the fact that thanks to social media, procrastination has been at an all time high. The good parts about social media is that it connects me to people around me. For example, I went to a huge high school, with a graduating class of about 800 students. I have mostly all of them on Facebook, and have not seen most of them since our graduation day. Without Facebook, I would not know what is happening in any of their lives. One girl from my graduating class just recently had a baby. Another couple of people enlisted in the military. Some of my classmates have even gotten engaged and married. Social media has helped me to keep in contact with people whom I thought I would never see again.
Social media has changed drastically throughout the years. From the amount of users to the reason for using, social media has made a very big impact on many lives. It is almost unheard of to ask people my age if they have any sort of social media page, and for them to respond “no.” Social media is used for multiple reasons, both beneficial and recreational. A great example of social media being used for a beneficial reason is this class, Writing with Technologies. This class has a closed Facebook page where the students in the class are members, and the students post their blogs onto the page for others to view, including the professor. The Facebook page is a great way for students to refer back to any blog posts that they liked, or would want to read again. It is also a great way for the professor to keep track of students’ progress throughout the semester. Even though there have been many cons to social media and the adaptation to the growth, social media, if used in the right context, can be very beneficial.