1Rosengard

Rene Rosengard

In elementary school, social media wasnt a big deal. It was completely foreign to me as a third grader. What was the purpose? I was in third grade; I was only concerned with food and cooties. Later that year, I was invited to the back seat of the bus with the older eighth graders (I assume due to my cute characteristics). The conversations back there circled around the gossip happening on social media. At that moment I determined that in order to fit in and be cool, I had to get some kind of social media account. 1/13/15

Originally my mom wouldnt let me get an account. Understandable, I hardly knew how to turn on the computer. With age I learned the importance of social media, and that it was necessity in life. In the seventh grade I finally got a Facebook account. Facebook was the biggest thing at the time. Everyone was on it, and I felt completely in the know with all the gossip that happened around school. There was no shortage of juicy gossip to catch up on. The boys only talked about the high school sports teams, the college sports teams, the professional sports teams, etc. Boys only talk about sports. I mostly learned all the good gossip from the girls. Every Facebook status a girl posted was of some kind of drama, whether it be about themselves or someone else, it had some kind of juicy gossip I had to know about. In the eighth grade, my friend Dana posted a rude comment about another girl, Kelsey, on her Facebook page. It regarded her attitude at some event. Everyone started commenting on the post. It was the most popular post I had ever seen. Both girls started making mean comments toward each other. I had never seen anything like this before. I normally stayed out of all the drama. The argument ended with and invitation from Dana to Kelsey. Her challenge read, Meet me at the field tomorrow, 4:30. An invitation to fight! Ive only seen this kind of stuff on TV. I didnt think it was real, but it definitely was. 1/16/15

The next day, everyone was on the field. Seventh graders, sixth graders, and even high schoolers showed up for this event. This minuscule post turned into the biggest ordeal rapidly. There were at least hundred people on the field, probably more. Kelsey and Dana arrived eventually, as did the large mass of people that showed up with them. This fight was actually going to happen. Everyone started screaming as the two girls stepped up to each other. A voice from the crowd screamed, FIGHT! over all the other screaming. Thats when Kelsey threw a punch. Both girls started swinging, pulling hair, and pushing each other. It was very physical. I was nervous someone mightve actually gotten hurt. The fight eventually dwindled to a close when the police were called. The next day, the fight was all anyone could talk about. Videos were posted on YouTube and Facebook. The videos were played in class, in the hallways between class periods, at lunch; Everywhere. Teachers and parents had heard of the fight at this point as well. This one small post on Facebook turned into the biggest discussion point for the entire community. After all the commotion I realized how important social media was, and my understanding of its large impact grew. For a while Facebook was all I used. I was satisfied with updating my Facebook status every week, changing my profile picture on occasion, and messaging my friends through Facebook messenger. In the tenth grade, Instagram was all the rage. I was originally hesitant to get one. I was never picture savvy. If I ever did take a picture it was never good, but eventually I was convinced it was necessary to have. Once I created my account, pictures were all I thought of taking. Any kind of event I attended went along with a picture I took to put on Instagram. It was necessary. Instagram kept me on my phone way more then I was previously (using a whole lot more data as well). Along with keeping up with my profile, I also had to keep up with everyone elses profile. Facebook faded, and Instagram took the spotlight. People posted everything on Instagram. There were pictures of people, food, animals, books, places, anything. Someone went to the zoo, so theres a picture of them with the tiger exhibit, someone else got a fancy lunch and posted a picture of their colorful vegetable wrap, and another person went to the park with their friends and posted a funny picture of them running and falling throughout the park. It was a lot to keep up with, and it was important that you did so. More and better pictures resulted in more followers and likes, which directly reflected social status. The better the profile, the better the person. To keep up with my image, and to be a better person, I had to keep up with profile. In high school social status is everything, and Instagram was regularly updated because of it. I became way more involved with the social realm after Instagram. It took up the majority of my spare time. In between classes, at the red light in the intersection, during dinner, time didnt matter; I was on my phone a lot. It kept me on top of the social life of everyone, which again, is important in high school. 1/21/15

Senior year, I decided to expand my social life even more and make a Twitter profile. This is where all the pointless updates were put. Twitter updates ranged from being semi-important to completely meaningless, but most of them were meaningless. Twitter posts are basically the stupid updates on peoples uneventful lives. Ive definitely seen posts such as, Just drank a bottle of water! and, Walking to my house. Cool? Though twitter houses some of the most useless information, it also has some of the most important information. So much gossip can be pulled from tweets on twitter. Im sure an infinite amount of fights have started on twitter. Ive never seen a fight quite like the one I saw on Facebook. But petty fights occur everyday. Sub tweets are the tweets made about people, normally rude, that cause the most drama. Its normally girls talking bad about other girls. Tweets like Some girls are really slutty or Hate her are the typical petty comments made. One of my good friends lost a friendship after posting an unnecessary remark on twitter about her best friend. At lunch one day, my friend commented on her friends outfit and it being sloppy. She later tweeted saying Put SOME effort in, jeez. Words hurt, and actions hurt more. Everyone saw the post, and it made her friend look bad. After that they stopped talking and eventually drifted apart. It was so sad. I admire the power and convenience of social media, but its also such a scary and huge deal among people now. Social media has the power to bond, but also to break people apart. Social media has absolutely shaped me into a new person. It keeps me more connected to people. The most comforting feeling in the world is knowing what everyone else is up to. Social media keeps me connected, and the thought of disconnection scares me. Ive now associated social media with comfort. It keeps me linked with the people I care about. Social media has caused me to be more aware of appearance. The number of followers I have, the number of likes I get, and the comments I receive on my profile are very important to me. It determines my social standing, it determines my friends, it determines my connections, and it determines my life. Social media shapes everyone; its how other people see you. People can preach that theyre not obsessed with appearance, but image reflects a lot. Your image determines relationships with people, social and professional. The appearance you have on social media reflects you in the real world as well as in the virtual world. Social media may take up a lot of my time, but it reflects me as person. For that, social media will forever be something I find of importance, and has forever shaped me into the person I am.