Post #12 - Final post Relationship With Tech

Technology runs our lives. Whether we want to admit it or not we are glued to our phones and computers. Whether it is my choice or forced because of work we are constantly interacting with technology. 

I was the last person in my friend group to get social media. I thought that if they wanted to tell me something they would text me or tell me at school. All the time news outlets share how social media is harmful to mental health, especially for teen girls. Having mental health issues myself I thought social media would just make them worse. 

When I left for college I caved and created an Instagram account. This way I could share my college adventures with my friends back home. So far my experience with social media has been positive. I rarely post and mostly use it to keep up with my friends both in college and back in my hometown. 

I am very conscious of my digital footprint. That is one of the reasons that I didn’t want to have social media even though I knew what to and what not to post I was scared
that I would do something to ruin my reputation. I have heard too many people that posted one wrong thing and they lost their dream job or their scholarships. I didn’t want all of my hard work to go down the drain because of one mistake online. 

Another reason that I wanted to stay away from social media is I didn’t want random people to know about my life. My friends and I would meet new people and find them online. We could find out everything about them in seconds from where they go to school to their mom’s workplace. I didn’t want that information for just anyone to see. 

The funny part about this is I never thought about what other people posted about me online, i was so worried about what I would post that I didn’t think of other people. My friends posted me on their Instagrams and my mom has been documenting my life on Facebook for the last 11 years.  

For this post, I google my name. Most of the results are not of me. The ones that are from my local newspaper The Robesonian. I was on it for painting a mural for my local Church and Community. Another time my senior year of high school I wrote an open letter talking about the positive impact the young development group 4-H had on my life. This piece was also posted on the Robesonian website. So far my footprint is positive and I will be careful to keep it that way. 

I think that I have a healthy relationship with social media. I understand that people post only the best parts of their lives and that I should compare myself to them. I know that I spend too much time on electrical devices as you are recommended to only spend two hours a day looking at screens.  I found that the average time on social media is over four hours a day. Most days I spend less time than that on social media but a lot more of that just on the computer.