URL what?

There’s not a part of our lives that isn’t governed by some sort of social media platform. Whether you’re sharing photos and links of your life via Instagram, oversharing your dirty business on Facebook or throwing your 2c on the URL on Twitter – most people are linked up and ready to share aspects of their lives willingly. Granted, it can a bit tiring trying to keep track of who you’ve sent a Snapchat to, and who added you on Facebook.

One of the saving graces since moving to Cape Town has been the fact that I firmly believe in utilising social media for pretty much everything. I’ve made a few friends off social media platforms.

The internet is pretty rad in connecting with people you would’ve never met before and probably would have never thought you could get along with. I have made friends I consider friends for life through some 140 characters (and multi-platform communication).

Thank God for Twitter, albeit it being filled some annoying creatures, it’s the reason I have some of raddest people in my life. I’ve met bloggers, sneakerheads, creatives, rappers, models and some of the people who do really amazing things. I’ve also realised that often, I misjudged others purely judged on my past experiences with people who displayed similar characteristics. What I’ve learnt now, is much anybody can teach you something. Even though they sometimes don’t realise. It.

Now besides all the rad things I enjoy about social media (and Twitter in particular) there are some things that annoy me just little lot.
Firstly, when you encounter people who think they have all your characteristics down because they follow some of the things you post. No, you cannot solely woo me with some of the things I’ve tweeted or put on your Instagram feed. It’s pretty ignorant to think the girl or guy you might like or want to be friends with is as transparent as that. The reality, is the people choose to show you a part of their lives or what’s on their mind at the time. That doesn’t constitute you knowing their life story or whatever else. It’s most annoying when people try to “figure” you out and fail miserably while doing so.

My face when someone tries to personality test me.

You soon start to realise how everyone or similar circles are connected. Especially in places like Cape Town, PE or Rhodes. And that most likely you know someone who knows someone who slept with someone. (Let’s be fair)

There are also your fair share of the creeps on the internet who have no concept of the word privacy or chill. And this goes for all genders. I’m pretty sure I’ve encountered more than one catfish or troll trying to lurk. The idea of social media is pretty much to share your thoughts and subconsciously give anyone else an idea of your life or your thought process. Me trying to explain that one joke or thought I had – really just takes away from what I’m saying. Unless it could be misconstrued as offensive, trying to dissect my fun/ light/funny content, just means you should be hitting that unfollow or unfriend button real quick.

But back to meeting URL people IRL.

Some people have internet personas, because it allows them to express themselves in a manner that isn’t as easily achieved in real life. However it’s super awkward to meet an online friend and realise that all of that personality was left on the URL.

I spend a far amount of time online, and often lose track of how I know or ‘know’ someone. The reality is, that most people are just looking for a connection or a platform to vent about things, that they often can’t talk about. So as much as people harp on about how detrimental social media is or being “connected” – I’m not too mad about it. The main thing is, you can’t expect to know the complexities of a human being through 140 characters, a filtered Instagram selfie or even a blogpost.

And once again, if anything. The internet gives me more than enough to talk about. S/ o to the rad URL/IRL friends I have – you’re a bunch of weirdos, but I adore you tbh.