The other day, I came across a poem online by B. E. Fitzgerald. It’s beautifully written, and profoundly relatable. It’s called “Art is a Facebook Status About Your Winter Break.”
Here is an excerpt from the poem:
“The day after I taught my mother
how to send pictures over iPhone she texted
me a blurry image of our cocker spaniel ten times in a row.
Don’t you dare try to tell me that is not beautiful.
But whatever, go ahead and choose to stay in
your backwards-hopping-all-inclusive club
while the rest of us fall in love over Skype.”
At Stanford, the attitude toward social media is interesting. Because we’re located in Silicon Valley, we glorify innovation. Everyone is dying to create the new app that will make them a millionaire. At the same time, you hear conversations about how social media is making us shallow and incapable of real relationships.
I love social media.
Today, I messaged my younger sister on Whatsapp. She lives 8 hours away, but she got to tell me all about her first day as a senior in high school. We expressed our feelings and emotions through emojis and LOOOOL’s that made perfect sense to us.
My mom commented on a picture I uploaded to Facebook. I don’t always have time to call her, but she still gets to see my pictures from Japantown and know that I’m enjoying myself.
I took a Snap of the tiramisu I had for lunch and sent it to all my friends. I immediately got a silly face back from my younger brother and a “jealoussss” from my friend. We’re too far away to have a meal together, but at least I can get a reaction from them with my lunch.
Social media has not stopped me from living my life; it has allowed me to share more of it. Maybe you call it self-absorbed or pointless or shallow, but when someone sends me a Snap of their latte, that just means that they wanted to share a bit of their life with me.
As for the selfies, the pictures of cupcakes, and the Instagram photos of flowers – these are not any less important just because they are mundane. Capturing and sharing the simple, everyday parts of your life is just as beautiful.
Dorm Diaries 