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Running Head Social Media Narrative Daman 1

Alexis L. Daman

Cornerstone

Social Media Narrative Assignment

Roxanne Heimann


I am an avid social media user as well as many other college students. I have been using

the Internet/social media for as long as I could remember. That is my generation’s favorite thing

to do, be on the internet. “I was introduced to the OASIS at an early age” (Pg. 15) Wade grew

up in the OASIS just like we grew up with the internet and social media sites. If I had to tally

how many times I logged into Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snap Chat, Vine, etc., I would not

have accurate findings because I am on social media so much I would lose track and forget to

tally. If you were to name a social media site I probably have it. My Facebook and Twitter are

the accounts that I analyzed. Some of the key points; My Facebook I sometimes can be negative

about life and who I am as a person, I am negative towards college, my profile is the true me,

someone’s perception of me was different than my own, my twitter differs from my Facebook,

and employers look at what you post. My social media account usage and the things I post do

somewhat represent the person I am in real life.

There were many different things I noticed about my social media usage. The first thing I

looked at was my Facebook account. I did not go too far down in the years prior to 2014, but I

did analyze the statuses from 2013 through present day statuses (2014). I have come to the

conclusion according to Facebook I could possibly have a slight bipolar problem, it makes me

laugh going through all of the statuses and videos that I post and or share online. I noticed how I

was/can be very negative about life and anything else that crosses my path at any given time. As

well as being negative about who I am. “I was a painfully shy and awkward kid with low self-

esteem and almost no social skills—a side effect of spending most of my childhood inside of the


OASIS” (Pg.30) These statements Wade was making about himself kind of stuck out because it

seemed to me that he was being negative towards himself.

While searching through my statuses the fact that I am often negative about many things I

post kind can make me look real bad. That just happens to be my personality sometimes, I

always think the worst is going to happen when it really is not. I never realized how annoyed my

friends probably are when they read my statuses I post every day. Reading statuses of me

constantly complaining about things and wondering “why things happen to me and not others?” I

noticed the statuses from my Facebook page that I read all revolved around the topic of college.

First I could not wait to graduate high school and go to college to get away from my family half

the time and now things have changed completely college is stressful and I really wish I could go

back and do life all over again. I posted a status a while back about how I wish I came from a

rich family so that I did not have to worry about college not being paid for in the end. I always

thought I was on my own in the journey of life and I would throw my anger and negativity out on

Facebook a lot when I would get stressed about trying to figure things out on my own.

The things that I post on Facebook and Twitter are the true me and no one else. My

profile picture is the real me taken off my phone which is a contributor to social media. “I’d

designed my avatar’s face and body to look, more or less, like my own” (Pg.28). What people

read off my profiles they should expect will be my personality, and attitude most of the time, but

the perception that the person I asked who does not know me personally got from my Facebook

page in fact, was the total opposite from what I thought of myself.


I had someone who does not know me personally look at my Facebook and give me her

feedback on what she thought of a type of person I was. I was very surprised when I read what

she had to say about what type of person she thought I was. I had Emma Swensen a.k.a our peer

mentor in class look and observe my Facebook page and give me feedback. I personally only

saw myself as a negative college student with no money and how I hate life. She totally saw

something different than what I thought she would. She saw an athlete who loves softball,

someone who has a lot of great friends, as well as a sense of humor by all of the videos that I

post/share, and the last bit of her general perception she gave me was that I post out of stress

occasionally like; “I’m so done” was a status I posted a couple days ago for example from when

I was getting a little frustrated with some of my classes. Not everyone thinks the same things

about you that you may think about yourself.

The second social media website that I chose was my twitter because I am constantly

tweeting things. All day every day that is what I am doing is tweeting what I am doing, my

feelings that day, my feelings at the moment, or just scrolling through my news feed when I am

bored with what I may be doing at the time. When I was a junior/senior in high school around

2013 or so was the time when it was getting closer to college time and preparation and I was

freaking out a bit trying to figure out what I was going to do and that is when some of the

negative posts started. Some examples of a negative tweet I would have posted was “I give up”

or “life is hard.” Comments like that which were some things that I constantly tweeted when I

was getting frustrated or stressed out with everything that was going on, but now most of what I


do on twitter is like and repost other peoples posts, relationship quotes, life goals, etc. When I

do tweet there are some negative posts like Facebook, but most are actually positive, funny, or

motivational stuff I find and really like. For the most part I use Facebook for stressful posts, but

ones that do not ruin my reputation and Twitter for my positive posts which may sound silly that

is who I am though. Employers do not want to see a “bad person” meaning they do not want

someone who will make their business look bad.

Employers tend to look at any social media site that you have. I most definitely do not

post anything that could prevent me from possibly getting hired for a job as well as get me fired

from the job I currently have. Where I currently work now which is Hy-Vee has made it very

clear that if you post anything that is negative or may be a statement about Hy-Vee that ruins

their reputation you will be fired on the spot because it does not take long for the top dog of the

company to see those posts and contact the location that you work at as an employee. For that

reason is why I try to watch what I am posting because of future employers possibly looking at

my many profiles I have. Twitter is a social media site where people tweet when they are angry

and to get their emotions out and think no one sees it when they do. As well, twitter is a site

where a lot of drama and fights between people start. Employers see that and do not want to deal

with that either so I stay away from all of the bad stuff on twitter.

I learned that I totally use social media more than I should and I should log out for a

while and possibly focus on other things. Another thing that surprised me was how I observed

myself differed from how Emma observed me. I observed myself as being a negative person half

the time, not always being happy and while not always being happy my way of showing and


relieving those negative stresses was by posting all of those things on Facebook, and Twitter.

Emma saw me as an overall positive person. I do understand everyone gets stressed, it happens

to the best of us. Looking at my Facebook I sometimes can be negative about life and who I am

as a person, I am negative towards college, my profile is the true me, someone’s perception of

me was different than my own, my twitter differs from my Facebook, and employers look at

what you post. My social media account usage and things I post do somewhat represent the

person I am in real life.

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