Online Presence

My online presence is very small. I use Snapchat to personally connect with friends and family and I use Instagram to publish photos of myself and friends, but mainly to follow other content creators online for inspiration and ideas with what they are doing, wearing, reading and listening to so that I can broaden my knowledge and tastes. I try to keep my profiles private and professional since majority of my sites are centered around my career path in life, so I try not to interfere with both mediums that I engage in.
I do fear about my privacy rights online and who is seeing and using my photos and content, it is a very scary thing to imagine someone using and publishing your own work without consent and any privacy rights.

Social Media defintley does make users more lonely, socially awkward and threatened, depressed and leads them to loose a sense of self worth and confidence. Always living your life online will distant yourself from the people in person that you surround yourself, giving you further anxiety because you do not know how to reconnect and have real face to face conversations with someone when everything is done over a screen. During job interviews, you are unable to be confident and outgoing because you do not know how to pick up on social queues and eye contact is threatening and uncomfortable. You will most likely miss out on details in life of those you love and your surroundings of the environment and events, you will record something happening instead of living it and being present in the moment and feeling the energy, excitement, noise and smiles of those around you. It is a trade off for online likes and comments that will never amount to anything unless they are used for a business platform. I can relate and say that I have struggled with using and finding a balance with social media my whole life. Although I do not let it rule and control me, I can say that I spend too much time being consumed by the content that is put out there and constantly comparing myself to my friends, followers, or random online strangers and valuing my own worth by how similar I look, experience and material items we have. I definitely try to put my best version of myself out online, even though it is only who I am and look like a fraction of the time. I think that it is deceiving and sad when it is not balanced and used appropriately and it can take over someones life and their happiness, leading to negative mental illnesses down the road.