in 2010, I created my first social media account... I was 10 years old. I spent the next decade
procrastinating, feeling not good enough and wasting time I could've spent with the people
I love, instead watching them through a lens. Now, at age 20 after 10 years of being on
social media, deleting it all... well, except YouTube. Here's my journey on why I am deleting
social media. Okay, there's a couple reasons why I am making
this video. Firstly, because I want to. Secondly, I hope that my story and me expressing my
feelings can maybe raise more awareness to the endless dangers of social media.
So, as I said in the intro, I got social media in 2010, I was 10 years old. I was that young
that I had to beg my mum to let me have social media- that's the first sign I was too young
to be on the internet. Nonetheless, after weeks of begging her, and because my brothers
were allowed, I got given the go-ahead, she said yes. So I created my first email, because
you know, to have social media you have to have an email, and not a lot of 10 year olds
have an email. So, I created a cringy one, then created a Facebook account and voila!
That's how it happened.
As a child, before I got social media I would outside from sunrise to sunset. I would be
on my bike 24/7, I would play cards, I would run, I would use my trampoline. I was always
on my feet, you know? I was active, I was sociable and I don't know if anyone younger
than me would remember this, but you know before you had a phone or social media you
would have to walk to your friends house to ask them if they were free to come and play.
And, if I walked 25 minutes and chapped the door and the mum said "no, Ana can't come
out, she's got homework" I would be so mad, walking back. So, that's one benefit of social
media, I could text them and if they weren't in, they weren't in. If they weren't available
OK. That would mean I had no reason to go outside and I could just stay in my bed all
day. And, that's what I did.
As a 10 year old kid, you should not be in you room all day on Facebook or Instagram
or TikTok, you should be outside playing but social media created this atmosphere where
it felt ok, it felt like you were socialising with someone. So, from being a child who was
social and active and always outside playing and practising piano, I became the child that
would take selfies at 10 years old. And, I mean that part is kinda funny. I would post
all of the time how I was feeling, and I would go too far because I was a child and I didn't
know the limits of social media. And yes, I would do Facebook posts such as "like this
post and I will tell you if you are hot of not" or "like this post and I will tell you
if i would date you" and stuff like that.
Before I get into the negatives, here are some positives. One, as I already mentioned,
I didn't have to walk to my friends' house to be let down. Another benefit is that as
someone who travels a lot, I was able to stay in contact with people that I met in a city
and I wanted to stay in contact with them. Also no one can deny that during the pandemic
social media did help people in some ways. However, as I am going to explain, I think
the negatives outweigh the positives, even during the pandemic.
Being on social media 24/7 means that you learn a lot about the protests and the deaths
in the world and all of the bad things. *news outlet plays* and as much as it is really
great to be aware of everything going on in the world and I am not saying you shouldn't
be, when it's your whole feed, it can really bring you down and it can really take a toll
on your mental health. And that's something that happened to me. We can't all save every
part of the world and of course, it's nice to try, but sometimes you have to remember
to save your mental health and if your mental health is taking a toll because every day
you are finding out how many people are dying of covid, you should allow yourself to take
that break. Speaking of Covid, another thing that happened during the pandemic, but also
during my whole 10 years on social media is fake news. There is an infinity of fake news.
You don't have to be someone with a degree in that subject to write your own facts, and
write something that you have found. You know, some people lie, people are allowed to lie
and there's not much that can be done. When someone starts sharing a post and it goes
viral, it's already too late, like the dolphins in Venice at the start of the pandemic.
Another thing that was a problem as a GenZ growing up on social media is that I always
seeked approval and praise from others, even on myself, even on my looks. I would post
a facebook or instagram photo and if i didn't get a good number of likes than usual, I would
feel so upset and would often delete the photo and I would stare at the photo and realise
"oh it's because I have a spot" oh "oh my gosh my hair didn't look good" and I would
start lowering my self worth. We can't help it, humans have always seeked approval and
it is a natural thing for us but when it's forced into your every single day, you notice
it more. Now another thing I was lucky to experience
on social media is bullying. Yes, I was bullied on social media, I was bullied on Twitter
for a short amount of time and it was so bad that the school had called the police. And
if I wasn't on social media,yes ok, maybe they still would have said those things about
me, but I wouldn't have known, I wouldn't have cared because well, who cares what other
people think of you? If you are happy with yourself, you can't let other people change
your perception of you. This here is an external, you can't tell people to like you, you can't
force them and you shouldn't. You should focus on how you view yourself and you should work
to make that to the highest standard. And that's what leads me onto todays video which
is me deleting my social media. And in the next part of the video I am going to explain
to you how I am going to do it so I do it in the long run, so that I don't just deactivate
my account for two months. So that I really delete my socials and so
that
I do it without thinking I want to go back to it. So, for the
next part
of the video
I
am going to move myself over to
the computer *click*