My Personal View On Social Media In My 20s

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I grew up as one of the 90s kids and of course, the evolution of social media does play a big role in my life. It's actually hard to keep a distance from social media when everything goes a lot easier when it comes to digitalization nowadays

During my childhood years, my parent was very strict with gadgets and social media. I created my first social media, which is a Facebook account when I was 12 without the knowledge of my parent as I asked my friend to create it. And of course, I was scolded when they finally found out haha

Back then, a lot of my online social activities started without my parent's knowledge because basically, my parent does limit our time with gadgets and the internet and I'm kind of a mischievous first-born. That's why I love going to my cousin's house when I was a child because they got a lot of extra gadgets and computers there hehe

That's how I started BLOGGING. I would say that I spent most of my growing-up childhood years blogging and I explored the world a lot without moving my feet by reading other people's blogs. Along that journey, I started to create my other social accounts like Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and so on. 

By now I'm in my 20s, my point of view on social media has surely changed. Before this, social media was the only bridge for me to get connected with my friends but now, I see a lot more potentials for my own growth in them. I'll let you know what I think of each one of them


1. Facebook
To be honest, Facebook was a lot more entertaining back then. No ads, competing in Facebook games with friends, poking my friend list, write all the thoughts which end up getting me cringed when I grow up, stalking our crush, and so on. 
Right now, Facebook is most likely a suffocating marketplace. A lot of my friends or to be exact, the kids who grew up the same years like me, already migrated to other social media to keep interacting with each other. That makes the whole vibe of Facebook-ing with friends becomes cheerless for me

But still, thanks to Facebook that even now I can still follow up on the status of my other family members (mostly aunties and uncles who live far away), my teachers from kindergarten, primary school, and high school, Ustaz and Ustazah who taught me to mengaji, lecturers from my university, that auntie who sold air jambu batu near my school, the van driver who always drove me to school every day, etc. 
I prefer to be a silent reader on Facebook now rather than updating any of my life because when I'm on Facebook, I feel like I'm at a family gathering where most of the adults and old folks are there while no friends or kids aged me, so I think it's better if I just BEHAVE like a 'good girl' and give a like to all their posts. 
Other than that, I only join a few community groups on Facebook that meet my personal interest like the writer's community, chess associations, and bloggers group because it's good to be in those circles with the most experienced folks and 'seniors' where they love to share their works or some advice thus indirectly motivate me


2. Blogger
I started my blog 8 years ago because that childish Sara thought it was cool to have your life story being read online by multiple random people and being 'famous' because of that. I liked the feel of when I type in my full name in the Google search box and then I press the enter button so I would like, oh, that's me! 
Sara, you wrote that story yourself... and you're the only reader of your blog.
The younger me literally have no shame smh

Basically, like I've previously said, I spent most of my child-teenage days exploring the blog. I would just write everything that comes up in my mind like writing in the physical diary and I love hearing the sounds of my keyboard as I typing the words of my thought. 
I used to hate writing essays in school but because of my unexpected blogging routine, the writing process gets a lot more enjoyable. Now, I even started to develop an interest in professional content and SEO writing, and yet I'm still learning

I never expect that my blogging journey would go this far and that previous childish Sara would write for so many local and international brands when she grows up like now. One thing for sure that I know, it's all started by a 'gibberish' idea that ever rented on my mind when I was a kid


Blogging is a cool hobby for me. It develops my skill in writing and let me discover a lot of new things that I would never learn in school. I also found a way of my career path through blogging from time to time and it'll never make me feels regret starting a blog long ago while watching the other kids playing. 

3. Instagram
For me, the algorithm of Instagram nowadays could be dangerous for many younger generations. I'm not saying that I'm old enough that I'm more reliable to use that platform than the kids but I grew up watching the evolution of the app from that brown icon to the current icon so we're like experiencing different kinds of Instagram phase, right

To be honest, now I'm getting so rarely to post a picture and stories on my account, even liking or commenting on my friend's post would go through some long decision-making. Sometimes, I just watch a few of their stories update, and then I move to another app. 
I don't know but as I grew older, I'm just getting tired of Instagram. 
Some people said that watching other people (especially influencers) showing off their lifestyle, beauty, or luxury on Instagram is what makes us set a standard in our life. And it's not good because it makes us feel like our life is not good enough if we don't have what's those influencers 'have' in their life. 
I think that being an adult is easier to deal with this kind of feeling but it's not for youngers. They mostly believe in what they SEE. After all, it's on us to choose what we want to see if we follow the right accounts or influencers. 
To me, Instagram is just an extra platform to get updates from people that I like to get inspired with because some of them only have Instagram as their social account. 

4. Twitter
I would say, Twitter is the second most used app for me after my blog. I like most people on Twitter because they are mostly millennials (the 1980s to 2000s folks) sharing about their life, careers, and business

Most of my followings are my friends (of course), freelance writers, visual/digital artists, some blogger or content creator friends I knew online but never have met, entrepreneurs, digital marketers, and also investors. I like reading content from those kinds of people and getting inspired. 
Twitter is likely a modern Facebook for me with most younger audiences. That's why I'm more comfortable talking about my life here in addition to my personal blog. 

5. Youtube
I think my point for Youtube would be the same as Instagram but of course, it's based on the content you choose to watch. I have my own favorite channels which I've subscribed to and I could spend hours watching different kinds of videos from Youtube


Conclusion
I think that's all for this time as I've already shared the 5 common apps of social media that I usually use since I was a kid and even until now. I actually have a lot more social media accounts that I rarely used because most of the time I created the account just to read or watch the content for several accounts

Frankly enough, we can actually learn sooo many things free online even on social media. It's just on us to choose the content we want to see. 

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