Ermmmm... you realize that the CB kinda is social media, right?

(i'll top this thread when this comment comes up, by the way.) 

Top!

@Catsclaw: The CB isn't social media. Social media is generally a very widespread and popular thing used for connecting and sharing with people you already know IRL. The CB is a forum, which is an online discussion group, generally used by people who don't know each other otherwise, and are much smaller than social media. Forums generally don't have app forms and they are usually a lot more restrictive in terms of content than social media is.

As for my opinion on social media? I have accounts, I don't mind it. I think you have to be careful, because if you get too invested in it it can cause you a lot of stress that you shouldn't have had to deal with. But as a recreational activity (WERATEDOGS) or to connect with your friends (especially over vacations, like now), there's nothing wrong with it at all.

Don't know, don't care. I might get into it eventually, but for now my phone doesn't have the storage and I don't really see the point.

I love social media! I mean, how else do you connect with your friends during the summer? Lol. I only have Snapchat, but I'm working on getting Instagram. I like photography, so I like apps like that and, yeah, I agree that this is social media, too, even though it's not quite the same because most of us don't use our real names.

I actually just found your instagram through Ashlee! 

Social media...hmm...I have mixed feelings about it. Personally I use social media (instagram) to share my photographs with family and close friends. I think social media can be fantastic and a great tool for promotional use and just having fun, but I think it is misused and should be used with caution. 

And yes, the CB is kind of social media - sort of. It's kind of like a social media club of Crickets. Ha!  

I don't do it, and I don't want to, either. They just don't seem very interesting or fun. I simply don't see the point of them. I don't know the difference between Snapchat and Instagram, Musically is just dumb, and I wouldn't trust myself with Facebook until I'm way older- plus, I don't know why an eleven-year-old needs Facebook.

I don't have a phone yet, so I see it in a business-minded way. I feel like Facebook and Twitter are all about sharing things quickly, and making them go viral. Instagram, snapchat, and others are more about sharing what you did, not what others showed you.

I consider the CB "social media"-along with the Discord app that I use.

I do not have any other social media accounts such as facebook, instagram, snapchat, etc., but I have seen what can happen on these social media(s.)

In my house, we have rules of what we can or can't do on certain social media accounts, and also what we can or can't share-Kind of like what the Admins do with us on here-we're not allowed to share private information on here about each other, but I think that's kind of a general rule over any kind of social media(s.)

Social media can be a great tool for many different things, long distance relationships, sharing beliefs, etc.

It can also unfortunately be abused, and used for not very good things. Cyber bullying, porn, etc.

For me personally, I often do regret and wish that I did have more social media accounts, because all my other friends do and I don't-but then I also look around and realize that I have enough-I have email, I have Cricket, Discord, etc. Not having social media actually frees me up, and I'm able to do things I don't have time for usually, such as reading, writing, etc.

Sorry, just a bunch of random thoughts in no particular order... anyways, hope this all makes sense. 

I'm not on too many social media sites, but I find them really good places to find friends who share your interests! Irl friends are great but on the internet you can find so many people with specific interests that you though no one else had. Social media really isn't as unsafe and toxic as people make it out to be. Yeah, okay, 1 out of 100,000 people is a scammer or bully, but the thing about cyberbullying is that you can simply block them or close your computer or close the tab, unlike nearly inescapable real life bullies. Don't live your whole life on social media obviously, but there's nothing wrong with using it.

Hey Admins, I'm curious-do you have any opinions or advice about social media that you would be willing to share with us?

Well, social media wasn't invented until I was in high school and wasn't popular until I was in college. So, I didn't have it when I was your age and I'm sure your experience with it is very different from mine! I do think there are a lot of problems with social media, but I have also gotten lots of enjoyment from it. I use one account to keep up with my family in other states and my friends from high school, college, and graduate school, and another account to share my knitting and crochet with other crafters I've met in person and online. I love being able to connect to all these people, but you have to be careful what you share and what your privacy settings are. It's important to always know who can see your posts. Another piece of advice is to always remember that just because you see something in a post doesn't mean it's true. Whether it's a piece of news or a rumor about someone, you should always do your own research rather than just trusting what you see on social media! It's also easy to feel like everyone is having more fun than you on social media, but you have to remember that people usually only post their "best" moments, and if you start feeling too jealous of others on social media, it's probably a good time to step away and go out or read a book or something else that makes you happy. Finally, I think it's important to remember that social media should be fun, and if it's not fun for you, you can delete it. I had one account that became very stressful for me. I felt worried about deleting it, but once I did, I felt so much better, and I don't miss that site at all!

-Admin 

Hi, so I know I'm super late to post, but here's my opinion:

I feel like it can be abused in many ways, but not all the time. The internet and social media have given me some great things- being able to talk to my friends outside of phone calls and face-to-face, let me reach out to marginalized people like myself as a nonbinary asian, and given me a way to look into those subultures more likely to draw me in. It's also given me a fair amount of tutorials on how to make certain types of soups and how to thrift shop smartly. That said, I don't think it's all roses either. I've been bullied indirectly by stumbling across posts on various social media forums that have made me second guess the pride that the same thing helped me build up. Finding someone's post that suggests that I should go back east or that my best friends don't belong here hurts, and I think is actually more devistating than getting it directed at you in specific, because it's directed at you and all the other people like you.

So I think it's a double edge blades, as mum would say. It will only become one edged when these platforms make it a safer space, one that is hate free.