So, in just over a month, I will be leaving for my year in industry as part of my course. I have been lucky enough to find a placement in Vienna, Austria. For the past two years I have been living in York during term time, attending university there, but my home city is Southampton, so generally a long way from all of my uni friends. This summer, it's really hit home how detatched I'm going to be from everyone.
Snapchat stories, Instagram, Facebook albums, they're all great for seeing what people are doing. Not, how they're doing, which to me as a friend matters far more.
I often wonder how friends from school or 6th form are doing, but convince myself it would be weird to message them having not seen them in years. I'm scrapping this idea.
During my year away, I will try to do regular posts of what I've been up to, but I will also be randomly messaging people with something along the lines of....
"Hey! How's life?"
... and by that I mean, tell me how you are and how you have been. It's like the modern equivalent of writing letters to people.
It sounds stupid I know, but as my friend recently said, looking at someone on social media is like "staring through their living room window for five minutes". You're not getting a realistic view, let alone any depth.
So to those of you thinking there's someone you want to message in this way, do it.
If you get a message like this, reply! They care about how you are.
Oh and please, I know the modern age can mean we read into e v e r y t h i n g but if you're a guy and the message is from a girl (etc. other combinations available) it doesn't mean they're hitting on you, so don't get weird. People are allowed to be friends and care about how someone is in a totally platonic way, we're not in year 9 (sorry any year 9s reading this).
So there you go, that's how I'm changing how I use social media.
Stay tuned for updates in the next year
All the best,
Bea x
