Social Media can sometimes be the scariest thing in the world. Why? It’s a platform that feels like a bunch of people feel entitled to everything about your life and you’re just a person trying to figure out life.
And life feels a little overwhelming and complicated on its own. But having to answer to others about life is a lot. When you’re a celebrity, people expect answers about things and so maintaining privacy means staying away from social media and keeping it to a minimum.
Andrew Garfield was speaking to Kara Swisher on NYT’s Sway, and talked about the moment where he decided to take down his Facebook page and social media as a whole.
“If I wanted to have the life of privacy and protection and freedom and wholeness,” Andrew said, “I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to be exposed to all of the faceless, voiceless, nameless people on social media.”
That’s so true. Social Media leaves you open to so much exposure and so many comments about everything in life, which can sometimes be very overwhelming. Then again, in life, with smart phones everyone can capture anything and privacy feels more important than ever.
Social media can leave us all feeling inferior and we examine our lives based off what others project on social media. It can lead to us all becoming obsessed with celebrity, body image, and everything in between.
“Especially for young people and young women particularly Instagram, the obsession with image now, the kind of two dimensional image that we present comparing our insides to other people’s outsides, this is where — I know you have kids of your own. So it’s something that you probably wrestle with all the time. I’m not sure.” he continued.
Part of the joy when Andrew shares something is that he has put up barriers and walls, so you know that when he shares things with others, it’s something he wants to share and is authentic.
“But there’s parts of me that are mine and that I want — need to protect. And I am very, very happy with that. I’m happy that I got given that early social network experience. Because it kind of scared the shit out of me, to be frank.”
We’re glad that he’s drawn boundaries. We all could use some. Everyone deserves privacy.
What do you think about social media? How do you draw the lines between what you share and what you don’t?
