You may have read the title of this piece and been shocked – a world without social media? Unfathomable.
Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the fact that I was lucky enough to spend the majority of my childhood without the influence of social media weighing me down.
Born in 2000 (SO old, I know) – my first conception of a social media platform was Facebook.
I remember one of my cousins showing my parents how to use the platform, encouraging them to sign up as it was “what everyone was doing.”
Now, the thought of a platform where you can keep in touch with people you haven’t seen in years with a simple click seems simple. Something we all do every day.
But, thinking about it more, it doesn’t seem like the human race should have been given this power. Scary thing is, we still don’t know the full long-term impact that social media will have on our species.
It’s only now that we’re seeing the result of kids who have “grown up” on social media contend with what having their entire lives online actually means.
A gigantic online footprint – one that they couldn’t grasp until they have it brought up in an interview that they tweeted something controversial when they were six years old.
I feel lucky that this didn’t happen to me, and I worry about Gen Alpha.
I know, writing this makes me seem out of touch. Shaking my fist while yelling “kids these days,” when I spent my own tween years online and posted some embarrassing stuff.
So, if you have Gen Alpha kids in your life, make sure you stress to them that the internet really is forever. Someday, they’ll thank you.
