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The Never-Ending Cycle of Social Media Platforms
I’m just looking for a true connection.
I’m so sick and tired of starting over on a new social media platform.
My social media journey started out with MSN, those were the days. Different coloured fonts and casually chatting with your crush, asking if they would be online later. Then there was Hyves, which was basically the Dutch version of Facebook… although they definitely didn’t think the name through in English(shoutout to my fellow Dutchies!). Then, when I moved abroad and was introduced to the world of international school kids, I was considered old enough by my mom to be on Facebook. And I loved Facebook. The endless liking of pages that were basically meme titles as a page. The endless writing on walls of friends. Inside jokes, photobooth photos. The whole awkward teenager things from back in 2012.
A few years and too many status updates later, came Instagram. A new platform to share photos. At least that was its intent back in 2014. Maybe this would be the platform that would avoid those cringy status updates. The very ones that Facebook reminds me of every now and then with the “on this day 10 years ago”. This makes me feel old. How have I already been on one social platform for 10 years?
Instagram (IG) was tough at first. You had to post “cool” stuff. Think of a good quote for your caption. Choose an awful filter, insecure about your own face but relentlessly posting selfies anyways. Ugh. Luckily now that I’ve managed little less than a decade on IG, I’ve come to the decision to only post things I enjoy: nature, my family, cool, real things from my life.
And somewhere along the way, there was a brief Pinterest period (thanks to high-school yearbook class), then there was Tumblr (still going strong, 10 years now). And then I got a Twitter. But as a non-American, this one was hard to grasp. It remained hard to grasp the second and third time I made an account after having deleted my previous ones. Now, the third time’s the charm, as I’ve finally grasped its positive opportunities. Yet there are still days when I wonder why people endlessly share all of their thoughts on the internet. Although there are some people who have wonderful thoughts.
