Social media is - as many things are - both a gift, and a curse.
Being locked down in my home for almost two years gave me a lot of clarity on both the beauty and the beast of it. When the first UK lockdown happened, I had already been shielding in my home for a couple of weeks, due to being high-risk and immuno-compromised, and having social media, things like Facebook Messenger for video-calls, and Instagram for DMs, was definitely a help for me to be able to keep in contact with friends & family. It helped me feel less alone, less stuck at home, especially when the first lockdown finished and other members of my family went back to work, but I did not due to furlough & shielding. Even now, two years into the pandemic & back to work, most of my time is still spent at home, so social media, for me, has become almost a neccessity at this point.
I've always been very much a supporter for social media, I use it every single day, and have an account for almost every kind, especially the main four - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more recently, TikTok. Like most people, the first thing I do when I wake up is check my phone notifications, and catch up on anything I've missed. Most of my news information comes from Twitters "for you" trending page, which I find easier to digest than watching the actual news. On Instagram, I have built friendships & communities, and a platform to share things I enjoy passionately & unapologetically.
But with all those amazing things, it can also bring a lot of loneliness, pretence & masking our lives & feelings. It's so easy to post a positive post, a photo of myself smiling, and loving life, when in reality, at that time I could be feeling an anxious, depressive mess. People always post about how its important to be yourself, to be "authentic", how its "okay to not be okay" on social media, and how we should "check on our friends often" but how many of us actually do that? like really do that?
Yes, everything I post is the truth, but have I posted a delayed positive post (that was true at the time of taking that picture) when I'm feeling like absolute rubbish? 100%.
When the pandemic started, I used social media as a coping mechanism, I threw myself into it, to give myself a sense of community & care, especially on Instagram, as a way to keep in touch with people, I used it as a way to avoid the negativity surrounding the pandemic, which honestly, absolutely terrified me, and some days, still does. I needed something to keep my mind focused, engaged, and I needed that dopamine hit now more than ever before. I pushed myself heavily into editing & creating posts, mostly about Harry Potter, but also about other topics I enjoyed, like Disney, Marvel & even talking about my disability and spreading awareness. I joined TikTok & started re-gaining my love for singing & dancing, and even had a post of me singing go viral, to this day I still get so many hits on that. And I loved it, for months and months I got such fun out of it, made some amazing friendships, and would spend hours of my day working on these posts.
Then the reality hit.
