When it comes to social media, I’m all in. Well, almost.
A millennial through and through, I was part of the Friendster generation back in the early Noughties, before jumping ship to Facebook 11 years ago, when it began being adopted outside of American collegiate dorm rooms.
Since then, I have tweeted and snapped and poked and liked from the safety of my mobile phone.
Photos have been taken and then retaken and retouched so they look nothing like the original. Much effort has been spent thinking up captions that seem completely effortless. Friends were made, crushes stalked, enemies blocked.
For the Facebook generation, it has been a journey documented in posts and pictures – during which time the site went from an unknown start-up to a multi-national behemoth.
In some ways, I am glad to have experienced social media from its infancy, before it became known as a movement, tool and pop-culture phenomenon.
Today, though I see great advantages in the use of social media platforms, my own use of it is increasingly laced with caution. After hearing of numerous instances when online vigilantes have sought out people’s profiles and twisted words or shared pictures without permission, I am very careful about what I choose to say and share online.
Though I continue to maintain an open Instagram profile and enjoy posting an Instagram Story or two (pictures and videos that are uploaded onto the platform for 24 hours before disappearing), I think twice before I make comments that could rub someone the wrong way.
When given the option to fill in a form to sign up for a new account on a site or to take the quick route and sign up via Facebook, I always decline the latter – concerned that my personal information will be shared with yet another entity.
While scrolling through Facebook or Instagram, I am extremely selective about posts that I open, share or like, knowing full well that my preferences impact the kind of information that comes up on my feeds.
Facebook memories can be revealing, and also hilarious. Photo: Screen capture
I detest that so much of my social media history is being used daily by algorithms and advertisers. Case in point? The clothing I clicked on, while perusing e-commerce fashion platform Asos over lunch a few days ago, immediately came up as suggested items for me to buy when I later visited my Facebook page.
I was shaken by the recent scandal that came to light when a whistle-blower revealed that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had gathered information about millions of Facebook users.
The scandal brought the Download Your Information tool to my knowledge, which was referenced numerous times by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg during his testimony in front of the US Congress.
Tucked away in the depths of Facebook’s settings, the tool allows you to access a detailed archive of your personal account, all the pictures and videos you’ve been tagged in and a list of advertising topics for which you could be targeted.
Going through my folder – sent to me as a zip file – was an equal parts hilarious, worrying and cringe-worthy experience.
From the depths of my tagged photos – back when photos were taken with actual cameras and not smartphones – I unearthed evidence of time spent in questionable places and questionable outfits.
I re-read snippets from 11 years of conversations with friends, family and university peers, back when getting through that week’s 2,500-word paper seemed an insurmountable challenge.
I reminisced over our faces – younger, happier and simpler.
Because taking photos was not our prime purpose, not every second was documented or edited to seem perfect.
Facebook on February 1, 2018 reported a big jump in profits even though people are spending less time on the worlds biggest social network. Photo: AFP
But despite this, memories from some of these candid photos are still visceral to me – perhaps more so than the overly edited and carefully choreographed photos I have posted in recent years.
Going back in time made it so much more stark how much the world has changed. Today’s generation, growing up not knowing a world without filters, has so much more to contend with.
Where once I could smile with wild abandon, today the online world is rife with landmines.
No one knows where these social media sites are storing our information or who they are sharing it with. Neither do we know for certain who has access to it nor to what end it could be used.
We are equal parts concerned about how we share our information and how that information will be shared thereafter.
It is exhausting, to say the least.
And while I am still grateful for the convenience that social media has brought – honestly, I pick 90% of restaurants to dine at these days depending on how good their pictures look on Instagram – I am still glad I took that journey back to yesteryear, when life was a little simpler and not entirely given away to the Internet.
Sure, taking a selfie or two for posterity is great. So is sharing your honest opinion online once in a while. But looking through my Facebook time capsule was a reminder not to do that in lieu of experiencing life in its truest form – one that is tangible, unfiltered and enjoyed with sheer abandon. – Ankita Varma/The Straits Times/Asia News Network
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