As a person born in 1998 I can guarantee that while the preceding generation saw the advent of technology, our generation witnessed the rapid pace at which it grew.
From Fax Machines, to pagers to Nokia phones to smartphones and the growing social media landscape, we witnessed it all.
Someone from our era can hold pride in being a part of as well as participating on the landscapes of MySpace, Orkut, Facebook and Instagram. We experienced text messages being overshadowed by the advent of Whatsapp.
I would describe my social media history to be very similar.
As a preteen I had access to Orkut which was a platform used to socialise with the blurred lines of privacy in the newly found magical land of social media existed, I would happily and frequent indulge in conversations and friendships with random strangers who I would have become acquainted to on the virtual space.
You see, the idea of talking to strangers came naturally to me as I had changed 5 schools by then.
Even though Orkut was a phase it expired soon enough owing to the blank and often complicated interface that became monotonous like how Farmville and Cityville on facebook did (No one cared about the notifications anymore)
Soon after I created a social media identity on Facebook that of an individual who is into art and literature by creating a feed full of quotes, and sketches (ever so often sharing the content I brewed too). But this time certain boundaries were set. As the concept of mutual friends came into being it was as if, a silver lining.
It only makes sense to accept a friend request when you had one mutual friend.
The bars for safety and privacy were set low but they had at least started to appear is why I refer to Facebook to be a paradigm shift into my social media behaviour.
This was followed by the very upcoming Instagram, while almost going through a phase of twitter (it always got too much too handle). My instagram profile progressed from aesthetics to more organised posts.
From posting literature enclosed in pictures to exercising it as captions for my favourite photos.
And I think that created the foundation for my social media behaviour.
While I indulge in conversations I prefer to maintain anonymity to strangers and avoid interactions on the other hand my stories form patterns as if they talk about all the if going around my head. From politics, to activism to even humour. But it represents me the way it is because growing up with social media I realised that owning up to one’s actual identity on the social media space, just like in real life, would get you more authentic followers.