Blog 1– This I Believe by Natalie Kapustik
I believe in keeping a limited presence on the Internet. I have never posted a selfie. I don’t have a Twitter account. I don’t post status updates on Facebook and I think it has been about five years since I updated my profile picture. I rarely make an appearance on Instagram. I just don’t want my whole life to be document on the Internet.
I feel like an anomaly for my generation. My lack of social media presence is definitely not normal for a person my age. I think young people today overexpose themselves. Whether it is their thoughts or their bodies, they really put it all out there. When it comes to people posting “sexy selfies,” I think that some things are better left to the imagination.
I don’t believe in the pseudo social world that is the Internet. I want to talk to someone face to face, not over messaging. I want people to know who I am because of the interaction I have had with them, not because of something I mock up and post for others to interpret. Social media can allow people to create a façade of who they are which is why I take it with a grain of salt.
I think that social pressures no longer solely exist in schools, at jobs or in what we could normally call the social settings, but have also reached the Internet. I choose not to become engrossed in the game of trying to get “likes” or comments on photos. I think it’s unhealthy that there is this pressure for people to expose their minds and their bodies to the whole world.
I still struggle to understand why my generation is so obsessed with documenting their every move and voicing their every opinion. I think that the best moments are those that happen when we are not waiting to have them, cell phone camera ready in hand. When I’m out in social settings I see so many people more engrossed in taking pictures of what they are doing than actually being in the moment.
I will never be comfortable posting a picture of just myself on Instagram or letting myself rant of Twitter, but I’m OK with that. I prefer living in the moment, not through my cell phone, and having my photos and memories be mostly for myself, not for everyone else. Maybe I’m just old school, but I don’t think Ill ever start posting all about my life. I believe in the power of interacting with people, not my technological devices.