Social Media Frenzy

If I could go back and slap some sense into my 13-year-old self, boy oh boy would I. My mother would constantly harp on me to stop blasting my life on my social media platforms, but did I listen to her? No, of course not, because I thought I knew better than she did.

WRONGO.

When conducting a Google search of my name, some of the first things that pop up are my old Twitter page from 2012, my YouTube channel plastered with young videos of me, and my current Facebook page. While I do not have anything inappropriate or harmful to my reputation anywhere on my social media pages, it is still extremely embarrassing to see what I was Tweeting 8 years ago. My mom was right - the world does, in fact, not need to see my day to day business.

My dad has always had a strict rule that he does not want anything to do with him posted on social media, unless it is a nice family photo that he approves of. I was always annoyed by this growing up because I would see my friends post funny photos of their parents all the time when their parents weren't looking. I was under strict monitoring on all platforms that I used at such a young age because I am sure that my parents were terrified of what goes on on these platforms, but I would get so mad when they would tell me to take something down or tell me I was going to regret posting 5 million pictures with my tongue out in 10 years.

Ugh, they were right.

I found myself doing this same speech to my baby sister just less than a month ago when I discovered that her "VSCO" (some platform the kids are using now-a-days...looks just like Instagram, so I don't really understand...) had photos of her with red solo cups in the background. Can red solo cups be used for water, or even juicy juice? Sure! Are they usually used for those purposes? Absolutely not. This is where I got upset because I knew that as an underage girl, these photos didn't look too great, regardless of if she was partaking in the activities or if she was just a person in the photo.

Deletion means nothing. Over the years, I have posted thousands upon thousands of pictures of myself on the Internet in hopes of increasing my public image, but as I have been recently discovering, I am really just creating a digital footprint for myself that can be traced in years to come. Again, I do not post anything that would hinder my image as a professional, but I certainly wish I hadn't been posting so much as a teenager that would come back to haunt in my dreams...

Lynds