The rise of technology brings about many positive things, but with it comes false online identities. Social media namely Twitter, is a major culprit of allowing people to create their preferred personas.
An angel on twitter can sometimes conceive a ghoul in person; social media can now take credit for the term two-faced. Online a friendly, exhilarating personality, but in school a lifeless one-celled organism.
Although it may occur the opposite way, fights break out over constant “subtweets.” Teenagers viciously accuse each other for wrong doings, but solely act like best friends in reality. Social media provides a scary mask to show the different sides of a person, good or bad.
Certain attributes are commonly over- exaggerated within the depths Twitter feeds and Facebook walls. Humor, most valuable and sought after, is usually blown out of proportion online. Multiple things on the web can make a personality more attractive than it really is.
High School relationships have evolved because of the new age of smart phones and social media, couples base everything off their phones. Amazing Twitter DMs can lead to awkward conversations far from the so called “goals.” Lovey dovey egos with heart emojis are not at all what it is really like.
The term “Catfish,” a new way to describe a person who is perfect online but no tso in person, is commonly mentioned in the hallways. A simple “selfie” can turn into a vast controversy. The selfie taker could look like a model on Instagram but nothing more than an average student in everyday life.
New filters and tools that social media sites offer can allow a person to further hide behind the screens. A real person, with flaws and all, that appears throughout the hallway comes to quite a surprise when there are multiple un-needed filters and fake eyebrows online.
Other than these minor defaults of the rise of social media, there is a more major consequence becoming more common. Harmless students acting like a better version of themselves is only a fraction of the amount of predators online. Dangerous people lie completely unknown to people, putting them in sticky situations. Students and other users should be aware of the dangers of the web. The new ways to expand socializing is a blessing, but it can quickly become a curse.