BHS junior Analisa Appleyard had a generally positive relationship with social media this summer, “I think (my relationship) was pretty good! It was cool seeing everybody’s trips and where they went, and it was really fun to see everybody doing fun things.”
“I wasn’t really active over social media during the summer. I kind of just stay out of the way I guess, I’m not on social media like that. I don’t really deal with the drama,” said senior Ki’Donyae Bell. “I use it to talk to friends or just look at stuff: funny clips, videos I’m trying to talk to my friends about. Little stuff like that. I’ve never had a negative experience with social media overall.”
“It was average. Over the summer I felt like I was definitely on social media a lot more, but I felt like I wasn’t wasting time as much as I do when I’m on social media during the school year,” said Katharine Graham, a senior. “I didn’t feel this pressure of ‘oh my gosh, I constantly need to be doing stuff’ like I do during the school year to keep on top of my work.”
“Over the summer, I decided I hate it even more than I did before because Elon Musk is legitimately the worst human I could imagine,” said BHS math teacher Benjamin Nathan, who has had an unpleasant experience with social media recently, especially around X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Sophomore Zuzu Freed-Thorsen has an alternative view of social media. “I didn’t and don’t have social media. I know about it and I’ve heard about it, but it doesn’t affect me,” Freed Thorsen said. “I see my brother using it a lot, but I don’t really want it. I’m kind of happy with where I’m at.”
Makaila Reed-Norris, U9 student, had a more negative experience with social media this summer, “It kind of bummed me out for a second and I wasn’t really feeling my best on social media apps, but then I tried to filter out the content I was seeing and that helped a little bit, but not entirely.”
“Throughout summer I kind of tried to stay off social media as much as possible. Not because it was damaging to my mental health, but because I didn’t want to post stuff on there and I knew then I would compare myself,” said Ken Kemnitz, U9 student. “It’s just kind of like that, you can’t really go on social media and see other people and feel bad.”