It all started with a simple text message...
Before diving head first into my story I am going to start you back a few years to what I thought would be the greatest thing to ever happen to me... which with its gr ow th became an invention that holds the power to cause tremendous troubles. It started with a basic flip phone, which didn’t have unlimited texting, internet, games, anything!!! Yet it went on to cause World War III within my household, and still to this day can cause arguments, but thats besides the point.
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Phone have continued to grow and grow and with that comes gr ow ing technology, the internet, various apps, video calling, all of it has been used for connecting and communicating. To continue, as phones began expanding and the more there was to do, the more I was able to maintain more relationships, but also strengthened its power to hurt.
The more social media and different apps become popular, the more power they have to hurt people. and allow people to CAUSE more problems for NO reason, whatsoever!!!!! During high school years, this happened a lot for me. I can get serious F O M O , and for those who don't know, this stands for fear of missing out, and I can't deny that even now I get this when all my friends and I are back at school. But during high school, I had friends, we went out, but I also just loved just hanging out doing nothing with my friends. Then sophomore and junior year came & the more most of my friends worried more about drinking and partying than just spending quality time together. I didn't drink.. ever... I never liked it and I saw first hand some of the negative effects that can come from it so I didn't enjoy it. It wasn't FUN for me to get wasted and hang out with people I couldn't give a shit about. I can't lie and say the older I got this changed but during those first years of high school, it wasn't something I enjoyed and it started more fights than I'd like to admit to.
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"What are you doing Friday night??"... such a simple question that led to what was one of my worst fights throughout high school. I couldn't believe they had forgotten. We had made plans to hang out Friday night.. a girls night... something that hadn't happened in months because everyone's sports schedules clashed so hard. At first I tried to play it off... I thought maybe just maybe they wanted to do something different but still all of us. Then....
BOOOM!!!"We need you to DD for us" "PLEASE BRIT" "WE LOVE YOU" and the worst of all... "come on its not like your doing anything else.. we wont stay late you just have to get us" I laughed... i laughed so hard because they had to be kidding...It was literally one day ago we made plans to hang out... ONE DAY. |
TWEET....TWEET.....TWEEET...
Just like that... the tweets started flying. I was pissed off they had the audacity to cancel our plans to go hang out with people I KNEW they couldn't stand. I hated the feeling of them using me just to pick them because they wanted to get drunk. I loved getting my feelings off my chest.. It was exhilarating to just feel like I was getting back at them. thinking maybe just maybe it would make them upset but it didn't. It went on to cause more mean tweets sent, lashing out at each other. Subtweeting each other and retweeting stuff to make them seen it and it make me look "butthurt" as my friends would say But what I mostly felt was upset... not because my "best friends" ditched our plans to go drink with strangers but because they didn't even think to invite me. They just assumed I wouldn't want to go because I didn't drink. They just cancelled our plans and didn't even think to even ASK me if I wanted to go. I was pissed off, upset and really hurt. |
The night of the party finally came and I was so upset. I refused to talk to them for the rest of the week since they asked.. I didn't go drop them off and I sure as hell wasn't going to pick them up. I spent my night laying in bed watching Netflix constantly thinking to myself "I wonder where they are now?" "What are they doing?" trying to convince myself I didn't care and that I wouldn't want to be there right now. I switched through every social media trying to find them. Looking at their twitters and Instagram's, but even easier their snapchats.I felt as if they were going out of their way to tweet just to infuriate me. Tweets of them all being together before even going out, and of course I didn't get the invite to hang out before they even went out that nth and did whatever they were planning to do.Then that night, there was snap after snap of them all together at various parties and I couldn't help but feel even more out of the loop than usual. They were even sending me snaps all through the night, which pissed me off, but was still a way to see where they were and what they were actually doing.
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For me, through it all, phones have always been a way to communicate better. Keep in touch. Stay connected. But ironically enough, sometimes phones are the cause of problems, fights with friends and even strangers, and a reason for our generations lack of social connections and real life communication. SO.... next time you're w a l k i n g down the street, THINK ABOUT IT because sometimes there is more around you than that little thing in your hand. Look up, COMMUNICATE WITH THOSE AROUND YOU AND MAKE MEMORIES WITH THE PEOPLE THAT MATTER RIGHT NOW RATHER WORRYING SO MUCH ABOUT WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING.
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I am not proud to say I was using social media to get back at my friends and to keep tabs on them throughout the night, but it happens more often than not now-a-days. It is so easy to live through other peoples snapchats and instagrams, but it also can leave you feeling worse than ever. Seeing that one story of a person who is somewhere they didn't tell you they would be or seeing all your friends together when you weren't invited or even when you couldn't make it because you had your own plans. I won't lie and say even now I don't get that feeling in my stomach when my best friends post something they are doing and I am not there with them... But I am starting to try and see it in a more positive way. To use this to connect with them and feel as though I still know what they are doing and I am there with them, even from miles and miles away. There is so much negative that can and probably will come from these evolving forms of social media, but there is also so much positive that I believe can come from it as well.
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