Let’s be real here: first semester of freshman year is not easy. After now being here for a little over a month, the biggest thing I’ve realized is that it takes time to adjust. Not to say that freshman year isn’t fun so far— nothing compares to experiencing your first late-night Cookout run with your new friends, your first darty, or even the first French study group where you stay up until 1 am commiserating before your first big test. But college can also be super overwhelming at times! Learning how to navigate a new school and new environment without your best friends from home by your side is challenging, and there seems to be all of these weird pressures and expectations that come along with freshman year. There’s pressure to instantly bond with people and make a whole new group of best friends for life, pressure to be more mature than you were when you left for college and act like an “adult” in certain situations, and, of course, there are the (stupid) pressures of social media.
Personally, I love using my Instagram and snapchat accounts. They’re an awesome way to keep in touch with friends from home, show people what you’re up to, and share memories. Posting pictures on Instagram or posting a story on snapchat when I’m having a fun night out or a funny moment here at Wake can be great— but, it doesn’t show every part of my life here. No one wants to see the “boring” sides of college, like studying in the library or doing your laundry. Social media tells a different story and hides a lot of the emotions you can actually be feeling while showcasing a lot of other ones. That picture I posted of me and my friend at a darty a few weeks ago hides the fact that yesterday I was homesick and cried on the phone to my mom! You never know what kind of story social media is actually telling.
I know that for me, and for most college freshman, you’re going to have your ups and downs at school. Social media doesn’t always help this cause. It’s hard to see all of your friends from home, or even your suitemates, constantly updating their snapchat stories and their Facebook albums every two seconds. Seeing someone post fun college pictures on Instagram every weekend makes it seem like they’re having the time of their life. But the reality is, people just want to show everyone else how much fun they’re having in college with all of their “new friends.” Social media doesn’t tell the full story of someone’s college experience— it can be very deceiving. You never know what is really going on behind that picture or that Snapchat story. Social media makes it seem like everyone is having fun all the time in college, when that is definitely not the case! It’s okay to feel sad sometimes; it’s okay to not want to go out one night and watch The Kardashians instead; it’s okay to study; it’s okay to call your parents! Social media is something that should not be taken too seriously or paid attention to too much. Some days, it can be really difficult to sit through someone’s snapchat story if you’re having a particularly rough day yourself. It’s really important to keep in mind that there are two sides to it. Remember, everyone is in the same boat whether they want to admit it or not, trying to adjust, and the chances are that the person your best friend from home instagrammed with the other day is someone she’s only met once.
photo courtesy of: https://d19n1ren9crl9v.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/bigstoc…
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