Social Media in the Early Aughts

The dawn of the social media era began in the late 1990s/early 2000s. In the video below you will find the journey of social media concisely compiled in a series of animated bar graphs.


Video Source: Captain Gizmo

    As a millennial, my social media journey started in 2004. In 2004, I had just turned 13 and entered 7th grade. To clarify, this was the start of middle school for me, as I know some school districts start middle school in the 6th grade. During my middle school years, I was a very quiet and reserved person. I didn’t really have any friends. Besides attending classes, most of my school day consisted of observing my peers, on the outside looking in. While in school, I overheard some students talking about this site called Myspace. Wanting to fit in with the “popular kids”, I went home, got on the family desktop and made a Myspace account. After creating the account, I ran into a snag—I didn’t have a photo of myself that I could use as a profile picture. In the early aughts, it was difficult for the average user to upload a picture to social media. Our cell phones didn’t have cameras at that point. We were still developing rolls of film from disposable cameras and my family did not have a scanner to upload said photos to the desktop. As a solution, I chose a stock photo of a pair of dice.

After solving the profile picture issue, I realized that I didn’t have anyone to add to my friends list. So, I decided to look up some of my classmates and add them. Most of my classmates either accepted my request or I was automatically added to their list if their account wasn’t set to private. One classmate in particular, however, did not accept my request so easily. Upon receiving my request, this classmate sent a message asking who I was. This message put me on edge. As a person who didn’t (and still doesn’t) enjoy the spotlight, I was nervous to tell this classmate who I was. I didn’t want people to notice me. With these overwhelming feelings, the best reply I could muster was “Someone you know”. Looking back, if I was on the receiving end of this reply, I would have been suspicious of the person on the other end. But at the time, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal and I could stay under the radar. Though my classmate was not of the same mind as they replied stating “If you don’t tell me who you are, I’m going to delete you”. At that point I logged off feeling embarrassed. And the embarrassment didn’t stop there. The next day at school, that same classmate came up to me flanked by her friends and asked if my Myspace page is the one with the dice as a profile pic. I just nodded, said yes, and turned away to face forward in my seat.

Unfortunately, that encounter happened in first period. I had to spend the whole day feeling sad and embarrassed about my actions. I put myself in that position to fit in and do what everyone else was doing. The thing about social media is that it’s only fun when you have people to socialize with on the platform. With friends, you could add them to your “Top 8”—a feature in which you can display eight of your friends, ranking them from 1-8. As I didn’t have any friends, looking at this empty section added to my negative feelings surrounding Myspace. But being a young teen, I stayed on the platform because I wanted to be in the know. I wanted to be like everyone else.


Needless to say, my relationship with social media didn’t start on a positive note. As I grew older, social media advanced and changed. Facebook was the main platform everyone was using. There was also AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). In high school, I gained a few friends and would rush home after school to get on the family desktop and talk to them online, despite having just seen them. I felt a sense of status being able to use AIM. I felt like I was finally in the “in crowd” (Image property of the author)

Moving on to college, Instagram was the latest in popular social media sites. A little bit older and wiser, I was more reluctant to join this platform. I did receive peer pressure from friends to join, but as the platform was just for sharing personal photos (at its induction), I thought “What’s the point?” I rarely took pictures of myself, so I didn’t see the need of having an account. I didn’t join Instagram until about a year after undergrad in 2016. 

While early 2016 was the end of my undergraduate career, a new, more devasting phase began. During this time in my life I was suffering from major depressive disorder and fighting my way through a depressive episode. I joined Instagram in hopes that it would help me avoid my depression symptoms. Along with Facebook, Instagram increased the severity of my symptoms, playing on my insecurities. Seeing peers post the joys in their lives made it easier for me to compare myself to them.

Realizing that that was unhealthy, I deactivated all of my social media accounts. I eventually participated in residential treatment for mood disorders and was better for it. I didn’t reactivate my accounts until 2019. Even then, I barely used them or checked my notifications. In 2022, that changed. It was a difficult time in my life, and I started clocking more and more hours on Instagram. It got to the point where I knew I should stop but it was physically difficult to pull myself away from the screen. But since I’ve reentered my MLIS (Master of Library and Information Science) program, I’m proud to say that I’m not on Instagram or Facebook much these days due to competing responsibilities in the real world.

Let’s take a look at how social media has impacted me through the years.

 

Image property of the author

Looking at the lists above, there are the same number of pros as there are cons. This surprises me. I’ve always felt that social media has had more of a negative effect than a positive one. The results of the pro/con list remind me of a quote from The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro—"There cannot be light without darkness, nor darkness without light. You must have the contrast for both to exist” (2023).

    With that being said, I do plan to continue using Facebook and Instagram. In the present day, I have set healthy boundaries around the use of them. I have a time limit of 1 hour per day on social sites. Also, on Instagram I only follow family members and comedic pages. This keeps the platform fun for me and limits my tendencies to compare myself to others.

Optional Comedic Video

Recently I came across a video titled History of the internet: The 2000s. I’m sure those in my age group will relate to this heavily. (Warning: video has adult language/content)

References

Captain Gizmo (2023). Most Popular Social Media Platforms 1997 - 2023. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J9Wy_Fhdz0

Riordan, R., & Oshiro, M. (2023). The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure. Puffin.

Wavywebsurf (2016). History of the Internet: The 2000s. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzEpy7ybCZs

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