Social media is “Real”

To quote @annaspargoryan "Twitter, where I live" https://t.co/Cj9klCYQXl

— 💜 phonakins 🇵🇸🍉🔻 (@phonakins) November 8, 2024

Twitter, where I live. I also work there. Crafting my posts for private and business accounts, 240 characters at a time, because I’m not paying for more, not under the current regime.

My friends live there too. Friends like Veronica, whose house burned down last night. A house I’ve been to. Met her children (including the youngest who wasn’t born quite yet), was picked up from the airport by her mum, and generally grew from young adulthood into with who we are today.

I didn’t have the internet til year 12, but that’s okay. We had forums then, and Neopets and other ways to socialise with other teens on proto-social media. The main forum I was in was run by a 13 year old girl from the Philippines. With people from all around the world. I experienced 9/11 through the eyes of my US Neopets friends, not quite grasping their grief. Hell, I made most of my Sydney friends through Ok Cupid – as potential dates and ongoing friends and colleagues.

I was bullied and was terrible to others well before social media was a thing. I went through eating disorder and self harm without the “bad influence” of the internet and the misfit teen I was would probably have loved to have found more friends and support through a Tik Tok or whatever in the 90s.

The kids figure it out. There’s not a need for a ban, they just need guidance and support like everything else.

And you know they’ll find a way around it Granpa.