Social Media and Me

We are starting this course looking at social media, and going through the history of social media this week really took me back to my own experiences. I’m going to start pre-social media, just to really capture my whole experience, and because I think it becomes significant looking back now.

If I go all the way back, we didn’t even have a computer in our home until I was around 10 years old, so circa 1995? (I’m aging myself, I know…go easy on me – 2025 was a traumatic birthday year). The only thing we had for games was solitaire, minesweeper, and that ski game, where you had to avoid the abominable snowman/monster (and I never could – not for any real length of time).

From there, we graduated to a computer with games like”King’s Quest VII” and “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago”, and my sisters and I used to play the latter as a team, and would try and find the answers in our encyclopedias, which was where we did most of our at-home research.

I was in high school – Grade 11 or 12 – when we finally got internet in our house. So probably 2002 or 2003. My older sister was in a University class that required internet to download class notes, and for the longest time she had to go over to our neighbour’s house to do so. I don’t remember the conversation about getting it, but I do know my parents had put up a little resistance over bringing it into the house. Which, again, looking back, I can understand.

Once we had it, I jumped head first into all things online. My first social media experience would have been MSN Messenger, which I can’t say I used a lot. I did get right into online communities, though. I don’t even remember how I found them, but I was a huge fan of Anne McCaffrey’s World of Pern, and I found groups that created sites based on that series, which lead to forums, and I started to dabble a bit with creating my own sites (thanks to Lissa Explains it All, which is still as obnoxiously bright as I remember it being). And then sites like Neopets, and quickly into Facebook. Around the same time I joined Facebook, I spent a semester abroad in Australia, and I actually had a blog that I posted all kinds of pictures and updates on. I think on Blogger? But I’m not actually sure, and I don’t think it’s even active anymore. I think I joined Pinterest shortly after it started, Instagram in around 2015 (according to my earliest post), and I dabble a little in Reddit, but not much.

So, all of this leads us to the questions for this week’s posts: Describe your relationship with social media, and How has social media affected your personal or professional life in positive and/or negative ways?. My relationship with social media is, honestly, pretty superficial nowadays. I used to spend a lot more time on Facebook and Insta, and I do still do the odd doom-scrolling session when I don’t have the capacity to mentally tackle anything else, but I mostly use it to check in with extended family, or to find specific information. And in those particular scenarios, I find it very useful! I love being able to follow along with family members we don’t get to see as often, and I love being able to connect with teachers and groups from all over to help support hobbies, interests, or even my professional career. 

But there are definitely downsides too. Social media can be overwhelming, especially when it feels like everyone else has it all together. It can be really frustrating and depressing to see perfectly curated classrooms, and organized lives, amazing trips, etc. I know better than to take all of that at face value, but it still gets to me sometimes. I’ve also noticed how quickly “checking in” can turn into an hour lost in scrolling, which isn’t the best for my productivity (or mental health, if I’m thinking about it).

I also see my girls, now, and how differently their lives are taking shape when compared to my own. While I love some of our modern streaming services and gadgets, it also scares me a little to see how much my kids struggle with “being bored” when we are limiting screen time (which is always – we always have a limit). My oldest has really come around the last year or so, and she has developed some hobbies and interests that she easily falls into, but our youngest still really pushes back sometimes. Whereas it was just a fact of life for us, when we were younger, she still treats it like we’re depriving her (when she’s being very dramatic – which she is very good at).

Which brings me full circle. Having grown up without a lot of these connections and gizmos, I feel like I got some very important development done before I ever had access to social media and technology. And I really wonder what kind of impact it’s going to have on kids growing up now.