By now we have all heard the warnings of how bad social media can be for you. For example, that social media, when used consistently, may paint unrealistic expectations for your life and can cause way too much overthinking. 

While this is true, I think there’s a way to find a balance and make social media both beneficial and fun. It’s all about setting boundaries between you and your phone and realizing that all your accounts on social media are for yourself, and no one else. 

The biggest apps out there that have the potential to be detrimental to our generation are Snapchat, Instagram and Tik Tok. These apps portray unrealistic lives and body images through editing and filters. I think we all have been there and tried to take a million different photos for a selfie just so we could look good for our feed. Personally, I don’t think this is bad, though. It’s okay to take photos and post them and feel good about how you look. Where it gets toxic is in the reason behind posting it. 

If you are posting a photo and then taking it down because it didn’t get enough likes or you think you look bad in it, then it might be time to take a break from social media. However, once you start thinking of social media as your platform to express yourself, then the selfies and accounts you follow and things you see on your feed become super beneficial for yourself, and you stop worrying about the likes and comments. 

Follow who you want to follow. Social media can be used to either build yourself up or knock your image down, so if you follow accounts that impact you positively and add a smile to your day, it’s a lot better for your health. This means you should follow what you find inspirational and helpful, not just who has a lot of followers. For me, that means lots of dog and food accounts and zero Kardashians. I think it’s also really important to not feel bad about muting an account or blocking someone on Snapchat or Instagram – it’s not petty. They won’t know, and you will be so much better off not seeing things that might distract you or cause you to overthink things.

Lastly, take a break. There are a million ways to enforce this ideal but I think deleting the apps for a week or two can be really refreshing. Now I know this can be scary, but your streaks and likes are not as important as your mental health. If Snapchat is distracting you from getting things in real life done, tell your friends you’re taking a break, and delete the app – they can text you. For Instagram, you can actually temporarily suspend your account so you can’t even receive notifications. You can also turn off notifications for apps for a temporary break or give your phone to a friend when studying. This is usually what my friends and I do, and it really works to stay focused on what you actually need to do instead of reacting to every notification that pops up. 

In the end, you can either have a healthy relationship with social media by setting time limits, following accounts that you like and not overthinking it, or a toxic one that is difficult to break. You just have to remember that it’s supposed to be fun and that it is yours to do with what you want. 

It is easy to feel quite isolated during social isolation. I find myself often reminiscing about the wonderful times I had with my friends at Jewell and wishing that I could interact with them as I did before. While social distancing makes it so that the kind of communication that I am used to with my peers is impossible, there are nonetheless ways to adapt to these times and still maintain our web of relationships. 

Text messages 

A tried and true favorite of teenagers everywhere, texting is the way most of us communicate with our friends on a daily basis. Given the social distancing measures that have been put in place, it seems that texting is slated to become even more popular. Though this website is pre-COVID-19, there are nonetheless some fun texting statistics to be found. One can only imagine the marked increase in texting and other cellular services during the times of the pandemic, especially considering that several agencies, including local governments, have taken to using text messages as a way of communicating with their customer base.

Text messages are a good way of quickly checking in with our friends, classmates and family. I would recommend, if you haven’t already done so, creating text message groups with your classmates in order to ensure that everyone understands the course material. It may be impossible for us to meet in person and have discussions, but that does not mean that we cannot use text messages as a way of making sure everyone is learning. Furthermore, having text message group chats with the people we care about – not just our classmates – is a good way of creating an avenue of fun, trivial communication. Perhaps in your practice of social distancing by, say, reading a novel, you come across a particular quote that you think that your family might enjoy. Letting people know that you care about them and are thinking about them becomes as easy as sending a quick little text. 

Phone calls

Despite the importance of texting as a way of communication, we often text people that we regularly encounter in our daily routines. Now that those routines have been sorely interrupted, we may find that we are no longer content with merely texting our loved ones. It can become easy to dissociate the person you are communicating with from the little text bubbles that magically appear on your screen. Is there really a person behind the appearance of the bouncing ellipses of a soon-to-be sent text message? Who is typing? To remind yourself that the people you are receiving text messages do, in fact, exist, it may be good to set up a good, long phone chat. 

Now normally I am quite firmly against phone calls. When people call me unexpectedly, it is equivalent to someone showing up at my house and knocking on the door uninvited. If I answer the call, or the door, I am opening myself up to a form of communication, which, once initiated, cannot be interrupted save rudely or awkwardly, and thus I may find myself trapped by social niceties in some dull conversation or another. If something is so dreadfully urgent that it cannot be communicated to me in a text message, then why would a phone call be a better way of doing so? Usually I answer phone calls if and only if I have been forewarned as to when the call will occur and what the specific conversation will be about. But even then, I would much rather prefer an in-person meeting. 

Given that in-person meetings are sadly not recommended, it would seem that phone calls are now the way to go. I would suggest sending a text message to the person which you plan to call beforehand so as to not frighten them by a sudden appearance of your name on their phone screen. However, if you know that the person that you intend to call likes to live on the edge, then, by all means, call sporadically. It may be that spontaneously calling someone is a way of showing that person that you think about them unprompted, that you are wishing them well during these times and nd more, importantly, that you miss the sound of their voice and your interactions together. 

Emails 

Though the United States has pledged itself to maintaining normal mailing operations during this pandemic, it is undeniable that mailing services are under serious pressure by the increased demand for online goods, the lack of airplane traffic and by the increased sanitation standards coupled with a lack of resources to uphold said standards. As a result, I am hesitant to suggest that we should engage in any sort of pen pal behavior. Packages and letters are delayed, and postal service workers routinely test positive for COVID-19. While it is unlikely that one will catch COVID-19 from a letter or package, particularly if one is intelligent and handles packages with due care – like washing hands – the fact of the matter is that postal services, particularly postal workers, are overwhelmed as it is.

I would suggest that perhaps the best way to scratch our romantic urge for letter-esque communication would be to stick to flowery emails. E-mail communication is a lot less of the back and forth texting ping-pong which we college students are so acquainted with. Because the nature of e-mail is such that we have a greater stretch of time to deliberate on our responses, e-mail can be a longer and richer form of communication than a text. It is important to note, however, that sometimes sending e-mails can be a slightly delayed process. Particularly now that most of us find ourselves back home with all of our family members, and that we are all simultaneously trying to access the Internet, it is unsurprising that our connection seems atrophied at times. Perhaps, apart from having a faster internet connection given that everyone else in our household may be asleep, sending someone an email may be more mysterious and Byronic if we choose some midnight hour to do so. 

 Video calls 

I’ve had very mixed success with my video calls to my friends, and so I’m putting this as the last recommendation on my list. As I’ve said before, most of us have gone back to our homes as part of social distancing. Therefore, we find that we must compete with all the inhabitants of our home for internet connection. As a result, though the initial joy of seeing my friends on video is great, the feeling is quickly smothered by a growing agitation with the constant buffering, freezing, cutting off and call-dropping. Nonetheless, if we avoid high traffic times, it may be possible for us to engage in video calls with the people we care about. There are multiple applications which can serve our video-chanting purposes:

Zoom

Most of us are probably quite familiar with this application, given that we have to use it for class purposes. Zoom is a pretty decent application. If you are having a Zoom conversation with less than three participants, then there are no time limits to your video conversation. But if there are more than three participants, and your account is a basic one, then the Zoom conversation cannot exceed 40 minutes. Zoom also has a chat option, and the application also displays when your friends are available for a meeting and when they are otherwise occupied. 

Discord 

Discord is a free application that is quite popular amidst gamers because of the fact that you can create voice servers to communicate with your buddies while simultaneously playing games. However, it is also possible to use Discord as a way of communicating with a friend through video chat. Discord only supports communication through video chat with one person at a time, so it may be better to use Discord’s text and voice server options as a way of frequent communication with your friends and save the video-chatting for some other platform. 

FaceTime

FaceTime is pretty much a classic amidst iOS users, given that the app comes pre-installed on everyone’s iPhone and iPad. The problem, of course, is that FaceTime does not work with Android users. Given that William Jewell College has given all its students iPads, this may not be a problem, but some of us may not have access to our iPads at all times. 

Skype 

I find that Skype has become a rather dated way of communicating with people through video chat, but this is probably the most common solution to communicating with friends who have different operating systems. Skype is available across multiple platforms. I find that the Skype software is rather annoying to deal with and would much prefer another form of video chatting. Furthermore, Skype does not offer end-to-end encryption, which secures your data and prevents it from being monitored by outside agencies. See this website for a discussion on Skype’s privacy policy and for a few other video-chat alternatives.

In today’s modern era of dating, using online applications tend to be par for the course. Many people have used services such as Tinder or Bumble. There are also very niche apps like Christian Mingle and Farmers Only. In short, there are dating apps for all types of people. Even though many people have used dating apps, are they really any good? Do people actually like them?

I conducted a small survey of William Jewell College students about dating apps. A little more than half of the people I surveyed have used dating apps. Of those people, they listed various reasons for using the apps, including to find a boyfriend or girlfriend, for hookups, to meet new people and to try new things. A very small percentage of these students reported any long-term success with these apps. Though this didn’t fill me with any sort of confidence, I decided that I would give these apps a shot and use them myself. I only downloaded Tinder and Bumble because these were the most popular apps that were indicated in my survey. I set a goal that I would last one week, but I lasted three days. I didn’t even make it to Valentine’s Day.

I used basically the same profile for each app. For the images, I included a few pictures of just me and some with my friends. I set my gender preference to “everyone” for the largest sample size. I also limited by radius to about 15 miles because if I were to actually meet up with someone, I wouldn’t want it to be any farther than that..

Starting with Tinder, I have to applaud them for their inclusivity. They offer multiple sexualities to put on your profile, including gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, demisexual, pansexual, questioning and queer. I found that to be encouraging. Once I got to the actual swiping, I was a little disappointed. If you put down that you were interested in everyone, the odds of finding someone the same gender as you were pretty small. Many of the people I questioned about this who also marked “everyone” in their profile reported a similar experience. This could be a regional thing, but it could also just be that not many LGBTQ+ individuals are using dating apps, though this is just speculation.

Most of the Tinder bios I came across were really vague and generic. Some of the most popular photo trends I found among men were shirtless mirror selfies, holding a fish, posing with another girl at prom or homecoming and sports uniforms. I didn’t get a chance to view many female profiles, but many of the ones I did get to see were selfies in cars, sorority pictures and professional grade pictures that were probably senior pictures. I’ll admit that I myself did include two of those trends in my own picture section. 

The written bio section also offered no guidance, so the user is left to their own devices. I appreciated that because the creativity knew no end. Some people included their zodiac signs, a cheesy pickup line, an explanation of their ideal first date or nothing at all. It made opening lines a bit difficult because there wasn’t very much to go off of. All things considered, I’m not a huge fan of Tinder.

Moving on to Bumble, the main feature that differentiates it from every other dating app is that women are required to message the man first if they want to initiate the conversation. This causes a problem in same-sex matches, because that means the feature for them is either ambiguous or completely meaningless. Bumble altered the feature for same-sex couples so that either person can message each other first. 

Bumble’s profiles are a lot more fleshed out. There are multiple settings that allow your profile to indicate the following things: how often someone smokes or drinks, zodiac sign, religion, political affiliation, height, weight and the list goes on. Bumble also offered the option to pick three questions out of a list and answer them on your profile. 

While these options offer more than Tinder does, they can also be polarizing. I found myself avoiding certain people based on how they indicated their political affiliation or religion. It made it harder to find matches, but that can also be seen as a good thing. If someone has a different religion than someone else and knows it wouldn’t work out between them, it saves them both time instead of figuring it out far later. So this can be seen as a double-edged sword.

My take on dating apps? While I prefered Bumble over Tinder, I got a handful of matches on both and still ended up deleting them both after three days because it got boring. I found it difficult to try to get to know someone I’d only ever seen pictures of, and I didn’t feel comfortable meeting someone I didn’t know on my own. I don’t think dating apps are for me.

However, this is a personal preference. I’ve had people express that they’ve had some success with dating apps, and I’m happy they’re happy. But that doesn’t mean that I have to like dating apps just because someone else does, and someone else doesn’t have to dislike apps just because I do. Ultimately, it really boils down how you think you would do with a dating app.

First and foremost, I do not consider Tumblr a news app. Tumblr has news sources publishing on its platform such as “The Atlantic” and “The New Yorker,” but more often than not, users on Tumblr are far more interested in blogs that are dedicated to their favorite television shows. This is not a problem whatsoever. Tumblr is one of the very few sites left on the Internet that advertising has little effect on, and the site and its users pride themselves in that.

The microblogging platform contains over 225 million blogs and is one of the most used sites by young adults. The variety of users is great, and for a lot of young adults, Tumblr is a safe place for self-expression. More specifically, many blog posts focus on controversial issues we see in the news today. It’s a great place for discussion, but a Tumblr blog is not where you should hope to find facts. When looking into news, it could be the platform you start with, but by no means should it be the first and last place you go for current events.

Because there are so many users who are genuinely invested in their blogs, many times you will hear about events before proper news coverage. For example, in December 2014, user Leelah Alcorn, an American transgender girl whose suicide was blogged about throughout Tumblr, later received international attention from news sources such as ABC News and CNN.

While Tumblr succeeds in cutting-edge, first-person experiences, it fails in accountability. For some reason, when something is so good and personal as this site is, infamous Internet trolls and hoaxes ruin it. Tumblr infamy is more important than legitimacy to some users, and, unfortunately, a lot of false information is spread on the site. Literally anyone can post on Tumblr, and it is hardly monitored.

However, we can thank the site for one thing regarding news; sources such as “The Washington Post” and “The Atlantic” have paid attention to Tumblr’s popularity and can see the effectiveness of first-person journalism, especially for younger audiences. Since early 2014, news networks have started to integrate first-person accounts into their sites much more frequently. Unlike Tumblr’s first-person narratives, these accounts have been fact-checked and approved by experts for your reading pleasure.

Since Tumblr’s sourcing accountability is so fragile and unreliable, I cannot advocate using it as a source for news. If users see an issue on Tumblr that catches their attention, they should take the next step and look for sources that carry more legitimacy. Users should love it for what it is: a community where an individual can write about their affinity for cats without any judgment. It is fantastic that young adults have a desire to become informed, but Tumblr is not the means by which to do so.