Final Blog Post

While researching information about myself, I found my own online footprint to be quite interesting and I found myself in several different areas. For starters, I was able to find my name linked to my address and voting registration since it is a public record in my home state. In addition, I found my name mentioned in my grandmother’s obituary from legacy.com which dated back to March 2019. In another sense, I found my personal athletic statistics on the Connecticut MileSplit website since I was a track athlete back when I was in High School. Lastly, I found myself linked to the variety of social media platforms that I frequently use on a daily basis.

The four social media platforms that I use on a frequent basis are Linkedin, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. While I google-searched my name to obtain information, I was only able to find my Facebook and Linkedin online social media platforms. While these platforms are deemed as more public online profiles in a sense, Instagram and Snapchat are more private and people would have a more difficult time finding my user profile.

Instagram is a great source to use while in college with your peers. It is really geared toward the younger generation. It is also a good way to get current news about certain topics. Posting images on this platform really allows for a lot of creativity and it is a way to get yourself out there to a lot of people in your school. Posting on this platform can help boost self-esteem when people like and comment on your posts and it makes you feel good about who you are and what you are doing in life. In another sense, Instagram can make people feel very bad about themselves. People who are maybe not as popular can feel rather lonely when they see others having fun with a lot of their friends. This platform could very well be a huge reason and factor in why the current youth generation has a huge increased rate of depression, anxiety, and suicide. In a way, it can be very toxic and people will feel bad if they are not living up to their own society's cultural norms and standards.

Snapchat is really another interesting platform among the youth generation. It is a way for people to communicate with each other by sending pictures and videos back and forth. It is not the safest platform since people can essentially track your location but luckily there is a privacy setting that ensures people do not have to share their location. In the current society, Snapchat is another aspect that causes a lot of self-esteem issues. People often feel anxious and distressed when recipients don’t open or respond to their messages and it can cause a lot of issues. Snapchat also is a way that people can mute or really just “ghost” others if they feel like they are unimportant and if they want to stop talking to them.  

I like Facebook because it is another great source to obtain news going on in the world. It is scary because through the Facebook platform, specifically, people can find out how old I am, where I live, my interests, where I go to school, and essentially the people I associate with. The good thing, however, is that there is a special privacy setting that can limit the amount in which people can see my personal information. I was intrigued and fascinated by this idea because I really do not want everyone to know a lot of personal aspects about myself. I immediately changed these settings to private because I feel scared when people have a lot of important access to my personal information.

Aside from Facebook, I could say that I feel much safer when using my Linkedin platform. Linkedin, for example, is a great way to present yourself and your skills to other people in the professional world. Linkedin is a great way to connect and with professionals and it is a way to get a job in your career path. Both of my parents use Linkedin and they are rather satisfied with how it has set them up with careers and people in their own field. Linkedin does not give away too much information and I feel the information it does give away can only benefit you in a professional manner.

In my personal experience, I would say that I spend way too much time on social media each day. It often controls the way that I think and behave throughout the day. I really should limit myself to how often I am online and I think doing that would be healthier and rather beneficial. After doing this blog post and conducting my own individual research, I would say that I am too addicted to social media and I need to make an effort to change my ways and habits. The only benefits I see to social media are obtaining news and networking with professionals that will help land you a job. Otherwise, it can be quite toxic and cause a lot of stress and anxiety.