How has social media changed the way we communicate? What are some positives and negatives to social media? These are some questions brought up to me by my public relations professor. When I look at these two questions, what stands out the most is that word negative. A negative result of social media for me is that it has exposed insecurities I never knew I had. Insecurities that I don’t believe would’ve been uncovered if not for social media. One thing that never bothered me until social media was my weight. I knew I was bigger but I remember being younger and embracing this. I liked being bigger than everyone my age. It made me feel tough, in charge, and proud. All those feelings changed once I started using social media. Those positive feelings turned to negatives. No longer was being bigger a good positive thing, it was something to feel insecure about. Every attractive, popular, rich, and famous guy I saw on instagram was one of two things; muscular or skinny. The only overweight beloved people seemed to be comedians. I did not want to be a comedian though, I wanted to be Jared. I began trying to lose weight my Senior Year of high school around Easter, unfortunately it hasn’t been easy. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I still struggle with my weight today and to fix that struggle I know I need to use the insecurities that I gained online as motivation, look at the people you see on social media living the healthy life you want to live, and use it to achieve that life.
I can’t act as if social media is only negative though, it has brought me strong connections with friends and family I may have not achieved without it. I think about some of my friends that I exclusively know through social media. Without social media we would have never met and my days and nights I spent talking to those people would have been filled with something completely different, my life would be different. Social Media can also be a way for news to spread. Unfortunately we all know about the amount of untrue news that is spread online but there are good informational news stories I come across daily because of Social Media.
The other question was, how has social media changed the way we communicate? It has changed it for the better and for the worse. The better can be seen in our schools and families. Like I said before I am more connected now that ever before to family members and friends. When it comes to schools, St Ambrose can use social media to send out info and communicate with us and our parents all at once. So is social media good or bad for our lives? Depends on who you ask and when you ask.
Jareds PR Blog 