I'm not sure if this counts as a social media taboo, but a few days ago, I did the unspeakable -- one of my favorite professors was leaving WashU so I friended her on Facebook.
She said yes, and it honestly wasn't that big of a deal, but I don't know why, it was super scary even though I can definitely see her as a Facebook friend (what does that even mean?).
I've been thinking about the act of friending, I came into this school super socially anxious and I don't think I had ever actually done the act of sending the friend request itself at that point. I remember having a personal policy of never doing the friending because it made me way too visible, and I wouldn't want to make the person feel like I was "thinking about them or anything like that". Then at some point over the past few years as I got more comfortable with being a "visible" person, things just clicked and I was completely okay with doing the act of sending a friend request.
So it's something that I've been thinking about because while it honestly doesn't mean much to me now, it was this huge emotional burden in the past, but it was specific to that act of sending. I don't know much about the intersections of mental illness with social media, but it definitely makes the whole "social media + virtual worlds as extension of reality" thing make a lot more sense.
She said yes, and it honestly wasn't that big of a deal, but I don't know why, it was super scary even though I can definitely see her as a Facebook friend (what does that even mean?).
I've been thinking about the act of friending, I came into this school super socially anxious and I don't think I had ever actually done the act of sending the friend request itself at that point. I remember having a personal policy of never doing the friending because it made me way too visible, and I wouldn't want to make the person feel like I was "thinking about them or anything like that". Then at some point over the past few years as I got more comfortable with being a "visible" person, things just clicked and I was completely okay with doing the act of sending a friend request.
So it's something that I've been thinking about because while it honestly doesn't mean much to me now, it was this huge emotional burden in the past, but it was specific to that act of sending. I don't know much about the intersections of mental illness with social media, but it definitely makes the whole "social media + virtual worlds as extension of reality" thing make a lot more sense.
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