Why Did You Unfollow Me?

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Caroline S., Editor In Chief

Social media is NOT all fun and games. These days, people go through hell and back just to have a little carefree fun on Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat. And, manners aren’t just necessary at the dinner table. Social media etiquette is a must; otherwise you’re more likely to be caught up with drama regarding your rude behavior.

Timing is everything. Say one of your “friends” texts you at 6:05 p.m. and you don’t feel like texting them back right away, but you do want to browse cute dog pics on Twitter- DO NOT RETWEET. “Whenever someone doesn’t answer my text, I love knowing I have the ability to check their twitter favorites and retweets to see if they’ve been active on Twitter but haven’t texted me back,” said junior Umayma Habib. People make this fatal mistake more often than not, and feelings are always hurt. The key here is to silently scroll through your timeline, remembering the self-esteems you have at risk.

When it comes to followers, social media addicts stay keeping tabs. If one day sophomore Avery Nein has 1000 followers and the next day she has 999, someone has just ruined the aesthetic value of her social media page. Unfollowing someone is a sure way to permanently unfriend someone in real life, too. There are apps these days to tell you EXACTLY who decided to disregard your social media presence. “Losing a follower makes me feel like my clever captions on my pictures aren’t really ‘clever’ at all,” said Nein.

Snapchat is the riskiest of them all. Taking selfies to send to your crush automatically puts your ego at risk. What if they open it, and don’t reply? God forbid. It’s likely you will never take another selfie to send to them just because you don’t want to have your feelings played with again. “I feel a deep and saddening void in my heart, especially if that person is a close friend,” Jonathan Prieto, a junior, said after being cheated from a Snap response. Obviously, opening someone’s Snapchat message and not automatically reciprocating can only cause a divide in friendships.

So many feelings are at stake when dealing with these instantaneous media sites. The only true solution to this is to delete all social media and spend time with friends in person. This, however, would bring up a more serious problem- it is too hard to talk to people face to face. For now, we will continue to hurdle these obstacles that social media presents, very carefully.