In this day and age, one must feel lost without the presence of social media. Or maybe they feel relieved? Lord knows, I’ll never know the difference. Not a day goes by now where I haven’t tweeted, posted, or hashtagged to let others know what happened throughout my day. And, unfortunately, I’m sure I’m not alone…

Since 2010, there has been an entire day dedicated to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Flickr, Miitomo, and whatever other social media apps you can download before your 16GB iPhone memory is full. This June 30th, 2016, marks the seventh annual (Seventh!) Social Media Day, but the question is: Have our posts become our own profiles of personality? And, even worse, have some of us lost part of our personalities to the social media of others?

I will be the first to admit that I check Facebook for at least a couple of hours per day. (I’ve spent entire lunch breaks simply scrolling through my news feed.) I tweet an average of once per day. I Instagram multiple times a week. And the only reason I don’t Snapchat is because I’m an older Millennial who’s afraid to because he knows he’ll get addicted if he does. I do, however, prefer to post and tweet my own thoughts and pictures. Occasionally, I’ll share a news article or something nerdy, but as a writer, I always like to throw in my words of wisdom. But, what about the rest of society?

I will vouch that more than half of my Facebook “friends” share news articles and memes all day long without a single shred of thought. And my Twitter home is full of one retweet after another. Even Instagram has become a meme-infested app with nothing else to say but “This” or:

This what?! And, why is that ice cream even smiling in the first place!?

I want to know why you posted that meme! I want to know why this news article speaks to you! I want to know how much this tweet makes you laugh! And, god forbid, I want to see a picture that you took yourself of something that means something to you, and not just another selfie of you with your arm on your waist! With so many posts and tweets of writing and creativity that is not our own, have we turned into a society that shares everything but our own thoughts? And, if so, am I not “me” if what I say isn’t on my Facebook profile? Is that just a giant representation of my personality now?

I certainly hope not…

I like to think that it still reminds people of me when they see anything Star Wars related, because we made that connection in person. I like to think that the reason people still call me when they hear my favorite song, “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn, play on the radio is because we listened to that song together. In person. I like to think that my personality goes well beyond my Facebook profile and Twitter handle.

In the meantime, if you really want to take advantage of this year’s Social Media Day, I highly encourage everyone to start a blog. Write about your passions. Start a debatable discussion. Tell me who you are. I guarantee that your own words will be far more rewarding – even if no one ever reads them – than those hundred “Lkes “you received for that last selfie you shared!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go live-tweet the season finale of Game of Thrones…

#ProfilesOfPersonality
#PersonalityProfiles
#SpreadTheNerd