#Regrets

I was in second grade when I got my first phone. I remember it being pink and my older brothers telling my parents it was not fair because they were not allowed a phone until junior high school. I received a razor with a keyboard in fourth grade, and by junior high I had an IPhone. I was on Facebook, Twitter and had no restrictions.

I had no filter at that age when I posted or messaged my friends. When I had a young crush during junior high, I posted my feelings on Twitter about him. My older brothers were monitoring my phone, and told my parents who were really embarrassed about my comments on Twitter. It was the first time I realized the power of a phone and that messaging can have consequences. I was not allowed back on Facebook or Twitter until high school. I also remember being with a group of friends and not interacting with any of them because we were all on our phones.

Once in high school, I was obsessed with my phone along with all of my friends. I had my phone in my hand at all times. I would stay up at night messaging friends and my first official boyfriend. I was tired most of the time at school, because I could not stop messaging or observing what my friends were doing. I also posted things that now I would be embarrassed to post, due to being young and I was not mature.

#MeanGirls

My feelings were hurt on a few occasions because I would ask to hang out with a friend, and then find out later through snap chat that I was not included in an activity or fun night out. I remember feeling very left out and sad that I had not been invited.

During my first semester of college, I was close to my roommates. Around the fourth week of school, I went on a camping trip. On my way back from the camping trip, I received a lot of snap chats from them and text messages saying that they missed me and were excited to hang out with me. I was very pleased that my roommates were excited to see me and I was looking forward to spending time with them. Seeing their messages on my phone after a cold and miserable time camping made me feel happy. I came home to raw meat on my bed along with tape separating my roommate from me saying that I could not walk on her side. I was so mad and upset and felt deceived. I realized that my roommates were just hiding behind their phones because they were too scared to just confront me face to face. They would also snap chat all the fun things they were doing during the semester without me. I felt down every time I saw their posts and felt very sad about it. I have never been bullied before and it was just a shock to me. I tried my hardest to avoid them and not let them bother me, my future husband at the time helped me deal with that miserable semester.

#NoRegrets

Social Media is very powerful and can be a great resource and also very destructive. I have felt a lot of different emotions as a social media user. I do believe after having experienced over sharing, being left out, fake friends that a child needs to be mature to have a cell phone. When I am a parent, I will not allow my children to have a phone unless they are old enough and mature enough to handle the responsibility. I will also take my children’s phone at night so that they are not up late messaging, and looking up things that are not healthy to their development. I think it is important to realize as a parent that children do not have the emotional intelligence to monitor themselves. It is a parent’s job to ensure that social media does not take time from important family time and relationship building.