Social Media in my life

ASSIGNMENT 1
ELLA HÄRKÖNEN

Trying to identify oneself apart from Social Media seems like a challenge these days. How many likes did you get on your latest Instagram selfie, how many friends do you have on Facebook, what is the current state on your LinkedIn profile and -for crying out load- if my tweet doesn't get re-tweeted, what is the point of using Twitter anyway?
If I wouldn't drink tons of coffee, my head would spin from all of that.

Looking back my social media history, I started where many youngsters of my age -Michaela included- started: IRC-gallery. Gosh of the embarrassment flashbacks from looking back at that age! Nevertheless, it was a good learning platform: from the early age it got stuck to my head ONE CANNOT POST ANYTHING RECKLESS ONLINE. Luckily I was not the one learning the message by firsthand but a very unfortunate -and on that photo underaged drunk- girl from my class did. She certainly looks twice on what she posts these days!

From IRC-gallery to Messenger-chats, my teenager years were ludicrously spent away by chatting an hour a day with my friends. Only an hour though, because all my best friends were my neighbors and we actually spent time outside as well!

The first time I moved away from Finland without my family happened in 2010 when I was 18. I had a brilliant idea of writing a blog about my big adventures across the Atlantic sea and I wrote that blog for almost 3 years - all of the years I spent living abroad. The secret is out- this is not the first blog I'm writing to! Thank God, I don't have that old blog in anywhere public anymore with my continuous grammar mistakes and Photo Booth-selfies. Anyhow, last year I did both of my practical trainings abroad and wrote a blog then.

These days, being a 23 years old, the social media usage of my everyday life consists of Facebook, Instagram, blogs and Twitter. Somehow in my head that doesn't seem like much but writing it down it does look bigger! No longer am I not writing any other blog than this one -which is a good thing for the readers- but I myself love reading other blogs a lot.

I travel a lot and when being away, I feel like Instagram is a good platform to update your friends and family that I'm alive and doing goooood! Facebook is more of a habit that an actual posting place, but old habits do die hard.

When doing my second practical training in Canada, BC, twice a week I was working with the online marketing/social media team of the organization and oh man how much effort does it take to keep it all together. Comparing that with my personal accounts, it is a bit different. However unlike many people of my age, I do not like to have party-photos of myself online, because I see my personal accounts as my viral CV as well. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that that's bad publicity for an individual! One of my friends got headhunted based on her online accounts, so keeping that in mind, I want mine to be professional and clean- hence the removal of my old blog ;)

All in all, my social media usage is mild but continuous. Social media brings you a lot as long as you can keep your distance from your smartphone as well ;) !