It is hard to really tell how big of an online footprint I have. Yes, you could look at the number of social media accounts I own, the number of things I have posted, even the number of followers I have, but what's hard to understand is how connected we as a society are online. It seems like every day the virtual world becomes more and more realistic. But at what cost? Is the real world getting more virtual? There are so many things people can do online I never would have thought possible. I remember as a kid reading about the possibility of phones that had video too. That way you could talk to someone and show them what you were doing at the same time. Back then that sounded way to futuristic to me. Yet now, teachers are giving lectures online and writing notes for a classroom of students across the country, just another experience I thought was only possible in the real world.
So, when thinking about my online presence I could think about my immediate footprint like my followers and posts, but it is too hard to ignore the possibility of its growth. Like many kids my age, I could one day post something that goes "viral". In days, even hours I could go from being interacted with by just my friends online to thousands of strangers. Suddenly everything I post could be liked by thousands, seen by millions, yet I would never even have to leave my house to be "famous". Although, in my opinion, that type of fame, the one that stems from virtual interactions and is void of any depth is the loneliest type there is. I cannot claim to know where social media is going and how the future will look in the virtual sphere, but I know one thing is for sure. We as humans need real interaction, real experiences to make us happy, and if somehow we forget that as a society a lot of people are going to end up hurt.
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