My experience on social media: LJ1

       When indulging in the social media lifestyle there are may dos and don'ts that can vary person to person for me personally a few of mine might be similar to a few of yours. Let's start with the dos.

Do:

-Feel free to express yourself and be who you truly are, if people don't like you for who you actually are you are dodging a bullet for yourself odds are this individual is not meant to be apart of your circle.

-Ignore the amount of likes you and/or followers you may have, we are conditioned to believe this is a numbers driven world when in reality the numbers don't matter as much as we really think.

-Support your close friends small businesses by sharing their promos with your following who knows you may introduce them to a friend who has a friend thus causing a chain reaction bringing in more revenue based off of one post that took mere seconds to share.

Don't: 

-Base your life or love life based off of celebrities, over the years thanks to social media relationship standards have evolved thanks to the spotlight news outlets shine on celebrities relationships a lot of people expect their fresh out of high school or college mate to be set up with a house and the financial freedom to vacation and splurge money on gifts, relationships are about growth and support and not financial gain.

-Spread hate speech or take the bait of a troll spreading hate speech, these trolls are desperate for attention and will say anything to anger you and get a reaction out of you for their amusement. The block button exists for a reason.

-Lie to impress others, working gimmicks is only acceptable in the WWE its going to be hard pretending all the time to impress your pretend friends.

    Now I will admit when I first began using social media these dos and don'ts weren't imbedded in my head. When I first began using social media I was putting up a persona, I joined facebook in 2011 when I was 12 years old I was a funny guy in person at times but on social media I was a completely different comedian I felt like I was free to express myself but began caring about likes too much to the point where I would be on social media for hours a day by the time I was 16 years old. Then I posted videos and status updates of me doing or saying random things for laughs, Now I barely post if I do I am updating my pictures or showing off photos I had taken with my camera. Looking back I realized I was facebook famous right before the prime of social media influencers as we have today I wish I had known influencers would run the world like they are now, if I could do anything different I would go back and push myself to use my platform for more than being the clown funny guy who posts a lot. I missed out on a lot of chances to inspire the next generation of young black man who come from the painful extenuating circumstances that I grew up knowing a little too well.

    My personal opinion on social media overall is it is a great way for us to connect country to country both near and far away from each other. Social media allows you to express yourself in ways you may not be able to in your home life whether you are doing it as you or an alias the potential is there, it also allows you to reach people who may be going through the same thing who have no idea what to do. It also gives you an online image whether it be through selfies or just you posting things you like, selfies are a great way to express yourself the story to me isn't actually told by just your face, its the little details in the background you could be at your favorite restaurant, the park, your college, the club the story of who people think you are or who you really are can be pieced together one by one with these tiny details, now their are some rules I follow when posting to social media when taking a picture and geotagging your location I tend to post after I have left the location for safety reasons it may sound ridiculous but as a young woman once told me "You don't know who is watching you waiting for you to be alone so they can do god knows what to you." another rule for posting is don't give the full scoop when it isn't needed meaning don't air out your families friends or rumors you heard about somebody on social media because if it isn't true you are damaging innocent peoples reputation or just flat out embarrassing them.

    With the ability to see or connect with whoever on social media you may see people who are doing better or look a certain way you wish that you could look to that I say DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS! there is only one you and thats what makes you special nobody wants to live in a society reminiscent to that of a messed up utopian society where everybody has the same hairstyle, body build and daily routine. BE WHO YOU ARE free mind is better than a shared link of mannerism's one person got from another, you only get one life love yours. Remember mental health is important so breaks from social media are a must whether you delete your account or just disable it for a week or two cleanse yourself often or else you'll be drug into the trap social media can be these days. I will end by saying your mental health is more important than the amount of likes you get, followers you have or people interested in you. Put you before all of that stuff.