Final Blog Post

My Relationship with Technology 

    While it is sad to say, Generation Z is probably the last generation to know what life was like before technology. When I was little, I would go play outside with my friends, I would talk to my parents, play house, read, and actually get along with my little brother. We didn't have Ipads or phones yet for us to spend hours on end buried in, we got to actually talk to the people around us and if we wanted to talk to someone, we would have to meet up with them in person instead of just Face timing or texting them. Social media didn't start to become a big part of our lives until middle school when Instagram was the new technology craze. After that it was all phones all the time and how many followers or likes you had on your latest post. Technology has become the center of our lives and in that way it is unhealthy. 

    My relationship with technology, I would say, definitely has its ups and downs. On the up side it has given me ways to stay in touch and involved in my family and friends lives even if we aren't with each other all of the time. I am able to keep up with what is happening in their lives and they can see the same for my life. On the downside though it has taken up a majority of my life since I joined all of the recent social medias including, Snapchat, Instagram, an TikTok. I spend hours on end on these different apps throughout my day and not only is it rather brain numbing, it can distract me from my work and the world around me. 

    The one thing about social media that has changed the vast majority of the world's youth is what social media projects about body image and what is "pretty" or "trendy" and what isn't. Social media influencers and big public figures are setting unrealistic standards that not everyone is capable of reaching and it can create large amounts of negativity around that topic. Most people don't have large amounts of money to spend on the perfect outfit or have that perfect body and it can create negative thoughts about one's own body image. There are also recent developments of Fear of Missing Out, where we see all of these people going on luxury trips and experiencing so many different things and it makes our own lives seem boring. While social media can be a good thing that you are able to share fun parts of your life with others, it can also lead to major depression and anxiety that stems from it. 

    I believe that within my family, social media has more of a positive impact rather than a negative one. Since all of my family is only on social media for the sharing of content between family and friends, they are corrupted by the major negatives of social media. They are all comfortable in their lives and use social media to stay connected to each other and reconnect with other people from when they were in school. They aren't necessarily affected by the fear of missing out, or body shaming, or cyberbullying as much as a teenager would be affected by it. To most of my family, social media and the technological advances throughout the past couple of years have been evolutionary and they embrace the new form of communication with each other especially because they had nothing like this when they were younger. 

    

    If you were to look up my name on Google right now it would take you to my LinkedIn where it shows how I am a High Point University student and an aspiring event planner. I would like to think that I have a good online presence. ever since I joined social media, my parents have told me to be careful because anything can come back to you and you never know who will be looking. To a future employer going through my social media pages, I believe that I have respectable pictures where nothing is inappropriate and I have never posted anything negative or commented any negative things towards someone else on my social media. I have tried my best to keep a clean social media knowing that employers would be seeing it later in life. It is a great way to get your name out into the world but you want it to be positive not negative.  Social media will always be a big part of my life and it will always be evolving and I just have to remember that people are watching and to put my best self forward on all of my social medias. In this day in age we have to take social media and use it in positive ways and embrace the good things so that we can use it as a tool and not a device to tear others down.