This is How I Felt by the End
Ever since its creation, social media has been used as a place where people share their thoughts and memories with friends, family, and in some cases, random people from around the world. It gives us a window into the parts of a person’s life that we may not see on a regular basis, especially that of celebrities. Actors, athletes, and supermodels may screenshot moments from their day and upload them for others to like and respond.
In addition to owning two personal Instagram accounts, Werlhens Francois, a junior communication student, runs several accounts dedicated to promoting his own shows, including “Balling in the Zone” on Hawk TV. “Social media can literally change lives,” Francois explained. “If you post content that people like and you post it consistently for other people to follow, you can become a celebrity overnight.”
While some people like Francois use Instagram to promote their business, others use it for more recreational purposes. Hania Sarsar, a junior communication student, uses social media to post pictures of her flowery, patterned artwork for the general public to view. “I think it branches you out and you get to see what other people like,” Sarsar said in response to keeping her art account public.
However, she has different feelings about making a personal account for her everyday life. “I find it weird if people know what I’m doing all the time, and I just don’t know if I want other people to know what I’m doing. I don’t even know what I would post – maybe a selfie?” she explained.
It is interesting to see how ordinary people like Sarsar prefer to share only one aspect of their life, while famous celebrities willingly give a lot more to their followers. I was fascinated by how frequently celebrities would post about their families, activities, and careers.
As someone who has hardly uploaded to social media, I always wondered what it would be like for a regular guy, such as myself, to pull back the curtain and provide a window into an average daily life. I wanted to find out for myself if making social media a big part of my day-to-day routine would affect me as a person.
With this in mind, I decided that in 2018 I would take and upload a picture on Instagram for every single day of the year.
My initial thought was that this was not going to be a big deal to me, and that I wouldn’t have any problems thinking of something creative and cool to share. It did not take long before I realized it was not going to be as easy.
There were some days where I did absolutely nothing and ended up posting a generic selfie with a random caption. In addition, there were days where I was in a completely bad mood and didn’t want to post anything. I would end up faking being happy to show others that it was just a normal day for me, with only me knowing the events that happened during the day.
I also became very observant of who was liking and commenting on my posts, and seeing the shortage of likes on some of them gave me anxiety over not thinking of anything better to share.
By the end of 2018, I was completely exhausted. I could not believe that I was able to successfully post every day for 365 days without missing any. I am very happy that we live in a time where anyone can share anything they so desire, but there are also a lot of events in our personal lives that are meant to stay personal.
Dickie Cox, an assistant professor of communication, explained how celebrities manage to maintain their online presence so well and gain more popularity. “We each carry a manifestation of our personhood and construct it into a performance,” Cox said. “In the case of celebrities, they are often performing to generate audience base and tie it to dollars and advertisers.”
All of us are here to make a name for ourselves, and social media helps us stand out from each other in our own unique way. It can be exhausting when we oversaturate ourselves in likes and posts, but it is an amazing platform when we use it to extend ourselves.
As for me, I think I’ll be taking a break from Instagram for a while.
PHOTO TAKEN by Jenna Puglisi
