We currently live in a world where social media is deeply interwoven into many lives, and it’s hard for many of us to imagine life without it. However, there are students who live their day-to-day lives with little to no social media use.
Senior Jennifer Rokita stopped using social media in sophomore year, and hasn’t used it since, she said.
“I feel like it’s a big distraction,” Rokita said. “It’s too much noise.”
Rokita uses iMessage primarily to communicate with her friends. She doesn’t feel like she’s missing out socially because she’s not on social media, she added.
“If it’s important, I talk person-to-person,” Rokita said. “For school events, things like that, (school event) prices, I hear it through my friends.”
Naira Niyamathullah uses Instagram, Youtube and Discord for 35 minutes a day, she said.
“Sometimes I have to force myself, but because I’m so busy with sports and everything, I just don’t have time to be on social media. So I don’t have to (check) constantly.”
Junior Anna Sun often feels excluded from social events due to her lack of social media presence, she said. She is usually very behind on the latest trend because she spends more time doing hobbies or homework, she added.
“For example, the 6-7 thing – no idea why people use that,” Sun said. “So whenever I hear people talking about something that’s online or very popular, I kinda blank out. And I have nothing to say. I have nothing to say in this conversation.”
For school events, Sun often doesn’t resort to Instagram or Discord as main communication, she said. She talks to people in person or looks at the CLOG catalog using her email typically, she said.
“Because of that, I show up to a meeting and no one’s there, and then I check with my phone, and I realize that the meeting was cancelled,” Sun said.
Niyamathullah feels as though she’s missing out a bit socially due to her use of social media, she said. She is especially affected by school events, she added.
“A specific example – for the senior picnic, they posted about the vegetarian form that you had to fill out by Sunday,” Niyamathullah said. “And I didn’t see it, my friend saw it for me, and it was an (Instagram) story. So if my friend hadn’t sent it to me, then I would have missed it completely, and I might have not gotten the vegetarian option.”
Sun thinks there might be a benefit to using social media since she could be more up-to-date with more people, and she can make more connections that way, she said. She heard LinkedIn is an important app for professional connections and to network, so she might use that in the future, she added.
“I do think it’s a good idea to limit your time on social media once in a while, especially when things get busy,” Sun said. “I feel like social media is another reason why people procrastinate sometimes, so I think it’s a good idea to limit your time on it and to schedule only a few days a week in which you use social media.”
