A Young Girl's Facebook Phases: A Timeline Erin Canavan
It was just over three years ago when I made my first tentative foray into the world of social media. Caving to the ubiquitous pressure from my fellow Year 12’s, I bit the bullet, entered my details, found a colourful bunch of roses as my cover photo and selected the nicest possible ‘selfie’ from my limited collection at the time to become my profile picture – my identification and my popularity gauge in the vain, vapid world of high school. (I got three likes on that first picture!) I now had the bare bones of my Facebook self, and could build a social empire of which I was queen. Unless someone hacked my account. (Which thankfully no one did and hopefully they never will…). I was set.
In the early days, I restricted myself to a fairly infrequent online dabble, posting the occasional status update and uploading photos only when I had the time. Profile stalking was as yet an unknown quantity, and I rarely inboxed anyone (unless they had answers to my pertinent academic questions. As most of them involved Maths, I hardly ever received any responses). I was content with the little social sphere I was slowly constructing, and felt no real need to constantly update, peruse and comment upon the goings-on of my social scene. So, I got through Year 12 relatively unscathed, my academia still in good shape and my extracurricular activities taking precedence over my Facebook account. When the year drew to a close, I confess to posting some pictures of formal dresses, final masses and family graduation celebrations, but I otherwise remained a passive observer of and sporadic contributor to Facebook.
Ah, how things change. Apparently the transformation from social media slowpoke to Facebook fiend occurs in the transition from secondary to tertiary education. And I guess it’s fair enough, when you think about it. With three months off, a circle of friends who departed for greener tertiary pastures and a limited supply of mediocre reading material, I didn’t have much else to do. I was a devoted ‘profile stalker’ (Yes, I admit it. The shame…), and posted photos of the most menial things that I knew people wouldn’t really care too much about. My social empire was on the road to ruination from overuse, and the sad thing was, I continued to witness the horror unfold. I couldn’t resist going back to check my notifications every few minutes, subconsciously afraid of letting my social self stagnate and taper off into the cold, isolated world of an outcast. Every new photo and status on my News Feed sent a fresh wave of adrenalin coursing through my veins, gripping me and gluing my eyes to the computer screen.
Though I have improved since that time, I am ashamed to admit that Facebook is still an open tab on my browser, often taking precedence over the online University readings I am supposed to be scrutinising so carefully and critically. But I am proud to say that I am taking action and going on a Facebook Fast. That’s right. One week of complete social separation and (I hope), a time of spiritual cleansing, introspective reflection, family bonding and creative inspiration! I am quite looking forward to it, believe me. And it will happen, I swear! I just have to wait till after the exams.
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