I remember being 11 years old, begging my mom to let me download Snapchat. It went like this:
Me: Mom, please! All of my friends have it! It’s just for fun!
Mom: What even is this? It says right there that you have to be 13 to have an account, and you’re 11. What is so special about this app? What can it do that texting can’t?
Me: Ugh, you just wouldn’t understand! It’s so cool! Plus, everybody lies about their age, so why can’t I?
Mom: Oh, honey…
That brings us to where I am today: a chronic scroller.
is it really that bad?
Yes, it is really that bad.
I’ll be the first to admit that I am addicted to my phone. I constantly scroll through social media, watch online videos, text, and call my friends, etc. I feel like I cannot go anywhere without it. I mean, what if one of my roommates has an emergency? What if Markiplier posts a new video on YouTube? What if I want to watch my cat on the nanny cam? I can’t just leave it at home, can I?
When I was in middle school and high school, my entire life was on that tiny screen I kept in my pocket. During this time, I was obsessed with how many likes my posts got, how many followers I had, and even how my accounts compared to other users’ accounts. I wanted so badly to be what social media deemed as “perfect” and “aesthetic.” It completely drove my motivation and it made me feel unoriginal. Not only that, but I simply felt like I wasn’t good enough. At the same time, I didn’t even know who I was trying to be “good enough” for.
final thoughts
TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and other social media platforms are a great way to share content and keep up with your friends. Although it can be fun, social media can really suck sometimes. It’s not always supportive of your mental health, and sometimes it can be more detrimental than anything else.
I am not here to tell you that social media is a bad thing. It’s not, but it can do bad things. It can spread misinformation like wildfire. It can set expectations higher than what reality can achieve. It can reinforce negative stereotypes. Especially with AI, and other advanced editing platforms, anything can be fabricated and uploaded.
As a journalist, I need you all to promise me you won’t believe everything you see online. Please, do your research. Fact-check. Think before you post. Most importantly, remember to put the phone down every once in a while. Your mom was right when she said, “It’s that dang phone.”
