Blogs, Social media and a researcher’s internet presence

I think it is safe to say that Generation Z (Gen Z or the generation of people born between 1997 and 2009) is very much the generation of the internet. Most of us don’t really remember life without it; we quite literally grew up alongside YouTube, Google and Social Media. Being a 2000’s baby I grew up watching the rise of vloggers and the online influencers, playing online games that are no longer playable and watching social media go from a place were people posted photos of their legs in the bathtub with a heavy colour filter to where people make and break their entire careers. However, it seems like I missed something.

I have had a social media account since I was 14. Yes unlike most people I actually waited until I was over the age limit from a Facebook account- this was due in part to the fact that I actually absorbed some of the endless internet safety lectures I got as a child and the fact that 2 years earlier a classmate had made a fake account in my name to post some really nasty things about me, knowing I couldn’t see what she was saying. Aren’t kids a delight! Anyway, I have had at least one social media account for over 10 years- in fact, I now have an account on over a dozen platforms that fit within the social media category. The problem is, I don’t use it.

Well, that’s not true. What I actually mean is I don’t post on them

My last Instagram post was made on 13th April 2023, and it’s a picture of my sister’s dog. I have since moved 3 times, changed jobs twice, graduated with my MA in Sociology, started my PhD, gone to several different cities around the country, seen some of my favourite artists in concert, attended protests and conferences, and so much more and not posted once. My Facebook is dormant until I see something political that my mum posted that I share on my page. My twitter account (never X) was used exclusively for the last two years to retweet videos and updates of the genocide in Gaza until I deleted the app because who the hell would support the Nazi muppet who owns it. Anyway, I could go on and on and on, but the long and short of it is I don’t use social media the way most people my age do.

And here lies the issue.

I am using social media for recruitment for my PhD but more importantly, my research relies on people trusting me, and most of the time, people start building that trust based on a person’s social media presence, which I do not have. In the last two years I have met so many amazing people from other PhD candidates to people interested in my research and they are consistently surprised by my complete lack of identity online, with many people expressing hesitance in speaking to me because of this. Honestly, it has felt a little like that one Black Mirror episode.

To be truthful, that is part of the purpose of this blog in the first place. I will be using this as a place to vent about my frustrations or to dump some cool information I have found so that my poor loved ones don’t have to hear about it yet again. But it is also a place where I can put a bit of myself out there in a way I’m comfortable, through my voice. There is no posing, no camera angles or filters or witty captions. There is just me and my spellcheck desperately fighting for its life. And amazingly, it has only taken 8 months since make a blog was just suggested to me for me to actually get on and make one, look at me go.

So here is to a new beginning of internet use by one Harriet Argyle. Only the future knows if I actually keep up with this blog, but I have lots of ideas, so I hope I at least do a couple of them. Anyways, as always, drink some water, take a stretch and free Palestine.