A Millennial Farm Girl’s Introduction to the Internet

I graduated at a time when I could have had MySpace, but Facebook was not quite around yet. Most of my experiences with computers and the internet happened while I was at school. We experimented a bit with online messaging, but mostly my experience with computers involved learning how to make presentations and practicing typing with Mavis Beacon. At home we rarely used internet or computers. My family lived on a farm, so we didn’t get high speed internet until I was 18, and I definitely had better things to do with my day than wait the hour or so for a webpage to load or an email to send.

At 18 I moved to Edmonton, and I got my first taste of high speed internet. Within a few years I started using Facebook, and this was the start of my journey with social media. Below I am going to give you my take and experience with all of the social media sites I have experience with (and I have used a lot!).

Facebook

Facebook was my first social media site, and when it first came out it was a great platform. When it first came out the main people on it were my age (university students). I primarily used it for status updates, and uploading photos. If I hadn’t deleted it after a bad time in my life, I would have access to all of those clumsy initial attempts at digital social connection, but I also think this incident demonstrates something a lot of us have had to learn. Having a public face on the internet can be fun, but it also means you are putting yourself out into the world, and sometimes we go through personal moments where we want to retreat to our inner circle.

I downloaded Facebook again in 2016. At the time I was pregnant with my first child and I wanted a way to share photos with my family. Since most of my older relatives were on Facebook this seemed like the most logical platform. There are a few things I like about the current iteration of Facebook. First, it is a great way to share photos with my family, and the memory feature means I get to look back every day and see what I was doing with my children that day. Local community groups are a good way to find out what is going on or to find information, however they also can be negative, for example instead of dealing with personal issues with our neighbours, some people instead shame them on public forums. Facebook marketplace has also largely replaced the need for garage sales, and is not quite as overrun with scammers as sites like Kijiji. On the other hand facebook is absolutely full of ads, so I have found that I don’t enjoy scrolling facebook as much as I used to. When I first redownloaded Facebook I enjoyed sharing my thoughts on current events or political issues, but after a while I became frustrated with the heated debates I would have with my family and friends, and I also realized that I could have a greater impact by having in person discussions, and being involved in my community instead of trying to change minds on Facebook. If you go to my Facebook now you will only see pictures of the fun things I do with my family.

I also feel that Facebook messenger is worth a comment, as it is the primary host for my family group chats. We started using this feature because texting wasn’t as seamless between different phone manufactures, and also to allow some of my friends and family the ability to use wifi for messaging and phone calls instead of incurring roaming charges. I love that this feature helps me stay connected with my cousins, and our best friends that moved down to Florida.

Instagram

In 2012 Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 Billion dollars. This is also around the time when I started using this platform. It is also the first time I used filters on my photos, but I stopped using filters on my photos after I had kids. I can look more polished and maybe I am prettier with them, but I would rather look like me. I never got into Instagram, maybe because my friends, family and peers didn’t get into it, and so I would post a picture and only a couple people would see it, so it didn’t seem very useful. I also prefer the ability to organize photos in albums on Facebook, instead of just having a running feed. I connected my Instagram to my Facebook in 2016, but after a while it just seemed redundant, and I had more people that wanted to see my baby pictures on Facebook, so in 2022 I deleted Instagram and I don’t miss it.

I started reading “The Anxious Generation” by Johnathan Haidt (https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/) this year, and he connects the rise of social media and and the forward facing camera to the rise of mental health issues in Generation Z, especially amongst girls. Instagram would seem to be one of the prime culprits if there is someone to blame for a rise in As someone who adopted social media when I was older I do feel that I have been somewhat insulated from the more negative impacts of platforms like instagram.

Reddit

Reddit is currently one of my favourite websites to scroll. I started using it in about 2013 I think? At first I enjoyed trying to get upvotes by making good comments and posts, but after a while I found arguing with the internet exhausting, so I quit making posts and I am now mostly an observer. My last Karma post was a picture of my puppy, because who can argue about a cute puppy! Occasionally I will throw in a comment if someone is asking a question I have direct knowledge of, but most of the time I can’t be bothered. There also seems to be a rise in bots, or at least people accusing each other of being bots. I will discuss this more in the X/Twitter section.

Snapchat

I tried this app briefly when I was on my first maternity leave, but I deleted it pretty quickly. None of my peers are on this app so it didn’t make sense for me. I also found the highly distorted filters annoying, and I have some concerns about the photos and messages that are shared by my students when there isn’t a record retained. I know this app has been very popular amongst my students, but it is also an app that I wouldn’t allow my children to use.

X/Twitter

I had a Twitter account when I first started teaching, but I didn’t use it often. I only really started using Twitter in 2018. I enjoyed following journalists, politicians and educators to get their takes on current events. Just like reddit I have primarily been an observer of this platform, rather than an active participant. I have always been nervous to put my beliefs and ideas on a public platform because of the fear that parents or students would find my musings, and I prefer to keep my thoughts to people I know well. When Elon Musk purchased Twitter many individuals left for other platforms, but I stayed, still in my observer role. Some of the changes aren’t bad, for example I think the introduction of community notes has been excellent. I have observed that there are more right wing voices on the platform, and I don’t think this is bad, but unfortunately the left wing voices have left for other apps (like Threads or Bluesky), so the conversation is often not balanced. I still find that it is the primary app to learn about breaking events or political announcements, but I do have to be more cautious about misinformation. One observation I have made is the rise of bots, and their use to sway public opinion. I can think of two really good examples of this, starting in the spring there seemed to be a rise in racist and anti-immigrant posts on my feed. Now obviously you could have attributed it to the rise in people who actually believe this, but you could tell this wasn’t quite the case if you watched carefully. The post seemed to mirror each other, and the stories people told were too much alike to be genuine. I also found that there would be a swell of these type of posts, but then my feed would go back to normal. These posts then seem to rise to a normalization of discourse that would have seemed controversial before. For example, I took the post below from X, and I don’t believe this account is a bot, but the discourse around immigration has changed this year. There are many reasons for this, but did the bots have an impact? I think they did.

Many of my friends who noticed this left the app, but I just ignore it for a bit and then I get back to the side of X that I enjoy.  Since then I have noticed a rise in posts meant to sway your opinion, for example I noticed in December there was a swell in posts about Justin Trudea, and one day they would all be positive, but the next day the negative posts would overtake them. Both sides warring to sway how I vote in the next election. In the “Anxious Generation” Johnathon Haidt mentions that we can be swayed in our convictions and beliefs by what we believe the majority consensus is.

Tiktok

I first learned about TikTok from my students, and I initially dismissed it as an app like SnapChat or Instagram that I am too old for. I started actively using it during the pandemic shutdowns, and I will admit I waste way too much time. I enjoy the short videos, and I find the content isn’t as riddled with ads, like Facebook, or subject to bots, like Reddit and X. I have found several educators I enjoy following, and I find it is a great place to watch funny videos, learn how to do things, and listen to ideas. This is currently my most used app. I am a bit concerned about how the banning of the app by the American government is going to impact my content. Many of my favourite creators were American, and I know this is a big deal for them. The introduction of the social media has created huge privacy concerns. I know my phone is always watching, and primarily for advertising purposes, but could this information be used in nefarious ways. I think maybe it could, but I also am a bit sad that my favourite app could be changing.

If we could turn back time and remove social media I do think that would be positive for society. There are many aspects of social media that are fun, and beneficial, but I do have concerns about the world, and some of the changes that have happened. I don’t think it is actually possible to go back to how things were before though, so we must figure out the best way to go forward. I am in favour of some of the restrictions being brought in place, but I also sympathize with those who have concerns about giving government or industry too much power in manipulating the narrative. Can we continue to use these apps, while putting some reasonable restrictions in place to stop the spread of misinformation, and improve some of the mental health issues that have arisen? That is a question I think we all need to explore.