Rosengard

Rene Rosengard

In elementary school, social media wasnt a big deal. It was completely foreign to

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me as a third grader. What was the purpose? I was in second grade; I was only concerned
with food and cooties. Later that year, I was invited to the back seat of the bus with the older
eighth graders (I assume due to my cherubic characteristics). The conversations back there
circled around the gossip happening on social media. At that moment I determined that in order
to fit in and be cool, I had to get some kind of social media account.
Originally my mom wouldnt let me get an account. Understandable, I hardly knew how
to turn on the computer. With age I learned the importance of social media, and that it was
necessity in life. In the seventh grade I finally got a Facebook account. Facebook was the biggest
thing at the time. Everyone was on it, and I felt completely in the know with all the gossip that
happened around school. There was no shortage of juicy gossip to catch up on. The boys only
talked about the high school sports teams; the college sports teams, the professional sports teams,
etc. Boys only talk about sports. I mostly learned all the good gossip from the girls. Every
Facebook status a girl posted was of some kind of drama, whether it be about themselves or
someone else, it had some kind of juicy gossip I had to know about.

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In the eighth grade, my friend Dana posted a rude comment about another girl,
Kelsey, on her Facebook page. It regarded her attitude at some event. Everyone started

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commenting on the post. It was the most popular post I had ever seen. Both girls started making
mean comments toward each other. I had never seen anything like this before. I normally stayed
out of all the drama. The argument ended with and invitation from Dana to Kelsey. Her challenge
read, Meet me at the field tomorrow, 4:30. An invitation to fight! Ive only seen this kind of
stuff on TV. I didnt think it was real, but it definitely was.
The next day, everyone was on the field. Seventh graders, sixth graders, and even high
schoolers showed up for this event. This minuscule post turned into the biggest ordeal rapidly.
There were at least hundred people on the field, probably more. Kelsey and Dana arrived
eventually, as did the large mass of people that showed up with them. This fight was actually
going to happen. Everyone started screaming as the two girls stepped up to each other. A voice
from the crowd screamed, FIGHT! over all the other screaming. Thats when Kelsey threw a
punch. Both girls started swinging, pulling hair, and pushing each other. It was very physical. I
was nervous someone mightve actually gotten hurt. The fight eventually dwindled to a close
when the police were called.
The next day, the fight was all anyone could talk about. Videos were posted on YouTube
and Facebook. The videos were played in class, in the hallways between class periods, at lunch;
Everywhere. Teachers and parents had heard of the fight at this point as well. This one small post
on Facebook turned into the biggest discussion point for the entire community. After all the
commotion I realized how important social media was, and my appreciation for it skyrocketed.
For a while Facebook was all I used. I was satisfied with updating my Facebook status
every week, changing my profile picture on occasion, and messaging my friends through

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Facebook messenger. In the tenth grade, Instagram was all the rage. I was originally hesitant to
get one. I was never picture savvy. If I ever did take a picture it was never good, but eventually I
was convinced it was necessary to have. Once I Created my account, pictures were all I thought
of taking. Any kind of event I attended went along with a picture I took to put on Instagram. It
was necessary. Instagram kept me on my phone way more then I was previously (using a whole
lot more data as well). Along with keeping up with my profile, I also had to keep up with
everyone elses profile. Facebook faded, and Instagram took the spotlight. People posted
everything on Instagram. There were pictures of people, food, animals, books, places, anything.
Someone went to the zoo, so theres a picture of them with the tiger exhibit, someone else got a
fancy lunch and posted a picture of their colorful vegetable wrap, and another person went to the
park with their friends and posted a funny picture of them running and falling throughout the
park. It was a lot to keep up with, and it was important that you did so. More and better pictures
resulted in more followers and likes, which directly reflected social status. The better the profile,
the better the person.
In high school social status is everything, and Instagram was regularly updated
because of it. I became way more involved with the social realm after Instagram. It took up

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the majority of my spare time. In between classes, at the red light in the intersection, during
dinner, time didnt matter; I was on my phone a lot. It kept me on top of the social life of
everyone, which again, is important in high school.
Senior year, I decided to expand my social life even more and make a twitter profile. This
is where all the pointless updates were put. Twitter updates ranged from being semi-important to
completely meaningless, but most of them were meaningless. Twitter posts are basically the
stupid updates on peoples uneventful lives. Ive definitely seen posts such as, Just drank a

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bottle of water! and, Walking to my house. Cool? Though twitter houses some of the most
useless information, it also has some of the most important information. So much gossip can be
pulled from tweets on twitter. Im sure an infinite amount of fights have started on twitter. Ive
never seen a fight quite like the one I saw on Facebook. But petty fights occur everyday. Sub
tweets are the tweets made about people, normally rude, that cause the most drama. Its
normally girls talking bad about other girls. Tweets like Some girls are really slutty or Hate
her are the typical petty comments made. One of my good friends lost a friendship after posting
an unnecessary remark on twitter about her best friend. At lunch one day, she commented on her
outfit and it being sloppy. She later tweeted saying Put SOME effort in, jeez. Words hurt, and
actions hurt more. Everyone saw the post, and it made her friend look bad. After that they
stopped talking and eventually drifted apart. Social media has the power to bond, but also to
break people apart.
Social media has absolutely shaped me into a new person. It keeps me more connected to
people. The most comforting feeling in the world is knowing what everyone else is up to. Social
media keeps me connected, and the thought of disconnection scares me. Ive now associated
social media with comfort. It keeps me linked with the people I care about. Social media has
caused me to be more aware of appearance. The number of followers I have, the number of likes
I get, and the comments I receive on my profile are very important to me. It determines my social
standing, it determines my friends, it determines my connections, and it determines my life.
Social media shapes everyone; its how other people see you. People can preach that theyre not
obsessed with appearance, but image reflects a lot. Your image determines relationships with
people, social and professional. The appearance you have on social media reflects you in the real
world as well as in the virtual world. Social media may take up a lot of my time, but it reflects

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me as person. For that, social media will forever be something I find of importance, and has
forever shaped me into the person I am.