Many teenagers my age have Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. It’s almost expected of teenagers to be obsessed with social networking.
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I personally don’t conform to this stereotypical image. I may not have 100 friends, but I’m pretty sure my friends are more realistic than your Facebook friends.
I’m not here to put Facebook down. I believe everyone has a right to show whatever they want to anyone else. And essentially that’s what social networking is, putting knowledge of your private life for other people to see. I believe that most teenagers have the ability to be responsible with what they put on but of course you can’t guarantee the reaction of the audience. I can’t think of an estimate of how many depressed teenagers have been humiliated on sites like Facebook, how many young men are called homosexuals because of the way they pose.
Essentially we do have the right to post our private lives online, though other people’s reactions can be annoying and hurtful. The other day I was sitting on the bus and I saw a child, around the age of eight using Facebook on her phone. When I was that age I didn’t have a phone and at 17 years of age I still don’t have Facebook. Why do I want society to know I’m ‘Kickin it back with the ladies LOL’ and for them to see me lounging in various drunken positions? Why do people care that much about these silly little things in other people’s lives? Am I really that interested in seeing pictures of parties I wasn’t invited to?
I’m not even going to go into the stalking or cyber abuse that happens online because that’ll take too much time and space. But every one of us has, or should have a mutual respect for the others privacy. And you should have respect for your own privacy at times. Those moments you have, don’t need to be shared with anyone else. That photo where the smiles and poses were all staged; carries no warmth or happiness of that exact moment. Life is more than technology, life is walking in the rain, laughing with your friends or singing your favourite song out of tune because you can’t stop laughing. Your idea of happiness shouldn’t be sitting alone in your room posting pictures of yourself; you should be enjoying your life.
