Online Persona

My online footprint is bizarre, to say the least. I don't have that much about myself on the internet, mostly what everyone else has. When I google myself I am not even in the first 1000 pictures. There is a zoomba instructor Nicole Bates, an author Nicole Bates, and a softball player Nicole Bates. None of which are me. 

The social media I use are Instagram, Facebook, Visco, Tiktok, Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest. If someone were to visit my Facebook, Snapchat, or my Instagram they would be able to find out where I go to school, my name, my family, my phone number, my email, my birthday, who my friends are, and what I look like. I decided to put this information out there because frankly if someone wanted to know that information they could find it somewhere else. My parents both have social media with me on them, so does a lot of my family and there just isn't a point in trying to be secretive. I also never found my social media usage to be a problem as I have never been addicted to social media the way my peers seem to be. I go on social media every day to see what my friends are up to but it is very rare that I will post more than a couple times a month. 

If people were to look at my social media it would not be much different to another person my age. I do not post things on social media that paint me in a bad light, nor do I post photos of myself that are misleading. My Instagram is where my life looks the most "perfect" and my Snapchat is where I can be myself. I do not use any photo editing apps like Facetune, but I so put filters on my photos. 

I believe social media makes people more lonely. I think it is easy to find comfort in being in touch with someone online, but without actually being with that person, one can feel a sense of loneliness. I think people understand the feelings of depression and isolation via social media now more than ever. Even in the pandemic, we find ourselves comparing our lives to others, missing others, missing interaction, all via social media. We could have used the time in isolation to work on ourselves but instead, we focused on what others did before the pandemic or how others look during the pandemic and compared ourselves and our experiences to them. 

I also think social media makes people compare their looks to others. I have tried to follow more profiles with women who look similar to me so that I have some type of representation for myself. If I only follow influencers who are size zeros and 6 feet tall, I start to compare myself to them and that leads me down a deep hole of feeling bad about myself. If I ever feel I am in a place where social media makes me doubt my self-worth, I always close and log out of my accounts.