1. Running Head: Social Media- Follow Me
Follow Me
Cornerstone
Social Media Essay
Anna Nikolaidis

2. Social Media- Follow Me 2
“Be the person your dog thinks you are.” This quote is one that I, as a dog
lover, always found very inspiring. Going off of this though, I created my own and
always thought it to be true, “Be as happy as your profile suggests you are.” This
seems to be more accurate nowadays because people can display themselves
multiple different ways on the Internet. My social media for example, presents me in
a fairly accurately way. According to the marketing charts website, the average
amount of time a college student spends on social media is 12 hours a day.
I became a part of Facebook, my first social media website, when I was going
in to 8th grade. Although, I didn’t have much to post or do on there, the thrill of
having one was enough for me. That is, until I found out my friends had it too and it
became a regular thing from there on out. From that day on, I have been tagged in
pictures, posted statuses, changed profile pictures and engaged in many other
activities that could determine one’s view of me.
This week I documented how often I checked the common social media
websites such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter. I was shocked to find
out I got on them up to 18 times a day. Not only did I get on them so often but they
were also for pretty lengthy periods. This brought me to really think about what I’m
doing on there and what I’m allowing people to see. Smartphones have made it
really easy to upload pictures or post statuses on the spot through Snapchat or
Instagram for the public to see seconds after it was posted. When going back and
looking through my profiles, I tried to see at everything from a stranger’s point of
view.

3. Social Media- Follow Me 3
I gathered my own thoughts but I also asked my friend to show my Facebook
profile around to people from their college that don’t know me and to give their
honest first impressions of me based on what they see. The purpose of this was to
get a little more accurate insight and to see if my assumptions of myself were
correct. The most common response had something to do with my humor because of
my choice of cover photos, my most recent on being a “get cape, wear cape, fly”
animated cartoon.
There are so many options and settings on Facebook that I think say the most
about me. I have very little filled out about myself but the most interesting point that
was brought up was what do your friends (who your friend list consists of) say
about you as a person. I know why I have certain people as friends on Facebook and
that’s for purely entertainment purposes. Based on my actual friends though, they’re
a lot like myself in terms of the lack of posting statuses or changing much about
themselves. My friends and I are mostly, what I like to call, “silent creepers” because
I for one, am logged on quite a bit of the time so I always catch the latest arguments
or gossip-filled status updates. I watch, but steer clear from commenting to avoid
the drama.
To confirm my thoughts about my profile, I took a quiz from blogthings.com
that supposedly tells you what your profile says about you. It involved answering six
simple questions and my results came back as this, “You are modern and up on the
latest trends. You resist getting stuck in a rut. You are confident and sure of yourself.
You may not be prefect, but you're happy with what you've got. You are

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more of a lurker and a listener. You enjoy knowing what others are thinking, but you
don't have much to add to the mix. You consider yourself a bit of a paranoid person.
You aren't going to put a lot of personal information out there online.”
There’s a quote from the novel, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline that states
“Playing videogames never failed to clear my head and set me at ease,” (17) which is
definitely how I feel when I’m on Facebook or Twitter. The Internet is a place for
many, along with myself, to “escape” from the real world. Another quote from Ready
Player One states, “…Because I never wanted to return to the real world. Because
the real world sucked.” (18) I find it as a way to get some time to oneself within their
hectic life. Social media is also ideal for many procrastinators as well.
I’m aware that my Facebook profile and my Twitter page are nothing alike
but I was still shocked at the responses I got by strangers, to my Twitter page. There
was a bit brought up about my humor and how easily amused I must be, but I was
also told that I seem like one of those typical “preppy” “oh-my-god I broke my nail”
girls. I think it’s safe to say I’m going to be keeping a closer eye on the things I
retweet so I don’t ever get told that again. Twitter is a place that I don’t really have
that many familiar people on there so I don’t have to keep up a “front” or anything
along those lines when posting stuff. I post what I find funny or what speaks to me at
the time and if that comes off as a little boyfriend crazy (or just crazy in general)
then so be it.
I got my first iPhone in late April so I wasn’t a part of the Snapchat and
Instagram world until then. The concept of being able to upload pictures and

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multiple selfies to different places whenever I wanted to was very new and very
overwhelming to me. I recently got more in to Snapchat and most of my friends on
there must find me pretty boring. I post very few stories and most of them consist of
food, selfies with friends, and really adorable animals. Once again, kind of along the
lines of the typical “white-girl” as some may say. Instagram has been a slow
transition as well but instead of posting pictures of food, I’ve noticed a trend in
scenery pictures (pretty places I’ve been to, oceans, sunsets, etc.) along with a few
posts of my puppies back at home.
There isn’t much that can be done when people judge you, but the Internet
gives you the power to control what those people see. Ernest Cline makes an
excellent point in his book, Ready Player One, by staying, “No one in the world ever
gets what they want and that is beautiful,” (199) and I find that to be a very true
statement. The way I interpret it is that there are always going to be things in life
that you want, but it’s the way that you handle that and the journey you go on that
makes it beautiful.
The Internet makes it a possibility to follow someone along his or her
journey through fun and even hard times. In some ways I think websites such as
Twitter and Facebook are very unnecessary but on the other hand they’re very
useful as well. We (society) have created social media into an escape from the real
world and it’s a place to unwind or get your feelings out. There’s always someone
willing to listen or read your posts. However, I strongly believe my generation
depends on it too much and needs to see the world through their eyes and not
through their camera off their phone.