My Online Presence

I've had an online presence for as long as I can remember. I grew up with social media and, thus, it has always been a large part of my life. I have accounts on various social media sites ranging anywhere from YouTube to Instagram to Tik Tok to Pinterest to LinkedIn. Each platform has its own purpose, but sometimes it's not always used in the way it was intended to which has, in turn, caused a lot of negative effects on the younger generation. 

I love social media for the most part. It has allowed me to keep in contact with both middle school and high school friends. I love being able to see what people are up to that I don't live close to anymore. I'm a really big fan of animals so I follow so many random animal accounts because they make me smile. A few of my favorite animal accounts on Instagram are gilbertopossum, sweetbarkss, and simplystainedshop. Overall, social media brings me a lot of joy. It makes me so happy to come back to my room after a long, stressful day and just watch some funny videos to get my mind off of it. Social media has also allowed for me to connect with new people as well as find new interests. For example, before I got on Tik Tok, I never really cooked, but now it has become something that I really enjoy and want to learn more about.

Here are some of the types of cute puppies I like to look at. Hopefully, it brightens your day as well!

For the most part, social media has been really good for me. It has been there for me during some very dark times. Although it's been good for me, it's not always good for me. Sometimes it's hard for me to separate someone's online presence from who they are in real life. We are all taught to believe what we see even though we know that not everything you see online is accurate. I find myself comparing myself to lots of other girls on social media. I know this isn't a special thing; so many girls experience this too. This comparison is taught to young girls through the news media, social media, magazines, etc. To get this out of my head, I try to only follow accounts that make me happy or motivate me and unfollow the ones that made me feel negatively about myself.

I'm not the most extroverted person; in fact, I can be quite shy and reserved which can make it kind of hard to make good friends. When I decided I was going to be attending High Point University, I knew I was going into a school not knowing a single person which made me realize that any scholarship weekend or orientation would be crucial in making initial connections. When I was at the Presidential Scholars Weekend, I met a girl named Maeve almost immediately. She seemed very nice and working hard seemed to be a priority in both of our lives. Unfortunately, we were separated due to the assigned schedules they had given us and I didn't see her again for the whole weekend. I knew I had to find her on social media, and that's what I did. I found her account on Instagram and we've been friends ever since! Below are a few pictures Maeve and I took the other day in front of the library.

One of the best things social media has ever done for me was connect me with my boyfriend, Tony. During my freshman year of college, I began to grow discourage because I had never been in a relationship before. I never had many guy friends which is so strange to me since I am a major sports and action movie fan. Anyways, my friends convinced me to download the dating app called Bumble which was where they had been meeting guys. I hadn't even had the app a month when Tony and I matched. We met in person five days after we had begun talking and hit it off. After four months of dating, he left for an eight month deployment to Iraq and Kuwait. We've been dating for over a year now (it'll be a year and a half in July). I am so thankful for social media allowing me to find my best friend, because, without it, we never would have met. Below are some pictures of my trip to visit him while he was on leave back in Pennsylvania during my spring break. 

Social media isn't just a good or bad thing. It's both. It's been both a good and bad thing for me and I know it has been for countless others. Although social media has its downfalls, to me, it's worth it. The connections I've made and experiences I've had because of social media have made such an impact on my life that I can't imagine who I would be without it. Do I, along with most other people my age, have a social media addiction? Probably. But, I think it's better that I understand that and do what I can to make my experience using social media as positive as possible like it should be.

Blog #9: Privacy

The 4th Amendment is all about privacy; it's about protecting our right to ourselves. Unfortunately, privacy looks so much different than what it used to look like. This right to privacy used to be more centered on issues like illegal searches and seizures and abortion. Although these issues are still important, there are newer issues on the horizon. They deal with the internet and social media. Since the internet and social media applications are still so new, there aren't as many laws or specific protections against privacy violations online. 

One big example where online privacy and laws are such a big deal is with revenge porn. According to Merriam-Webster, revenge porn is "sexually explicit images of a person posted online without that person's consent especially as a form of revenge or harassment." Revenge porn goes by many names but it is, no doubt, a form of cyber bullying or as Darieth Chisolm calls it in her Ted Talk, "digital domestic violence." She was a TV host and a News Anchor and is now a successful Life and Business Coach. 

Chisolm was a victim of digital domestic violence herself. One day, she got a call from her ex husband asking why he was sent a link to a website containing nude photos of her that were taken while she was sleeping. The website was put up by her Jamaican ex-boyfriend. In her Ted Talk, she describes all the thoughts that went through her head when she heard those words. Her entire life changed immediately. It took months for her photos and that website to be taken down and in 2019, won her revenge porn lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend two years since she became aware of the website. 

According to Chisolm, there are very few state laws and almost zero federal laws that specifically address and punish those who participate in revenge porn. This is heartbreaking to hear since the consequences for those affected by revenge porn are so severe. Many women lose their jobs, relationships are greatly impacted, and it is extremely degrading and harmful to one's mental state. I can't even begin to imagine how I would feel in her situation. The situation becomes even harder since it doesn't just happen for five minutes; it can last years or even a lifetime because it is so difficult to get images taken down permanently from the internet. There needs to be stronger laws enforcing and punishing those who are involved in perpetrating revenge porn. We need to protect each other's privacy sooner rather than later.