In the last class of the semester we talked about social media and a concept called the “Spiral of Silence”. As a young adult in this generation I never hear the end about social media from either older generations complaining about it, to the ridiculous things I see myself when using it. I’ve had social media since I was 12, towards the end of 6th grade when I first made a Facebook account because all my friends did it. Facebook was my only source of social media until about 9th grade, then I made an Instagram, and eventually Snapchat as well as twitter but I hardly use that one. The point is I’ve always been active and enjoyed social media, but about 2-3 years ago, I kinda just started hating it and realizing how false and engulfing it is. We talked about how some refer to us as “Generation Like”, which is exactly the thing that made me realize how stupid it is. Likes are like the main form of validation nowadays, and most people even equate them to how much money you have! I pretty much stopped using Facebook about a year ago, it was always my main one until then. In all honesty, I want to delete all my social media. The only thing keeping me on is the fact that I’m a music artist and that’s the main way to promote yourself. I’m over the false reality that it’s become so I try to limit my feeds to just things music related, with the occasional memes I find funny. I have to pretend to like and care about how much people double tap on my photos, which sucks but I guess I have to make some sacrifices for the love for music.

As for the Spiral of Silence, I think it hits the head right on the nail with the points it makes. This is the idea that human beings naturally keep their opinions to themselves if it’s controversial or not in the majority of the group they’re in. I think this concept is most applicable in public situations with people you don’t know, people tend to try not to disagree with random people to avoid unknown conflict. However if you’re with your friends or people you’re comfortable with, you’re probably more likely to be the odd one out because you know they won’t judge you as much for it. I’ve definitely had this feeling before, especially around new friend groups I don’t really point out things that might stir them up or look at me weird. I’m not terrified of a negative opinion, but I guess I just like to avoid unnecessary awkward situations.

I think this last picture is really important to understand, that the acceptance of others and doing things just to please people isn’t what life is about, and there’s no way to be successful if that’s what you’re thinking about. Society has come so far recently, just imagine what we could do if we actually decided to live in it.