MySpace to TikTok: We Didn't Just Change Social Media; It Changed Us

There was a time when one of the most stressful decisions in life was deciding who deserved a spot in your MySpace Top 8. Friendships were tested. Feelings were hurt. We picked a profile song that we were convinced perfectly explained our personality, chose a background that probably made the page impossible to read, posted pictures without worrying about an algorithm, and somehow logged off and went about our day.

We had absolutely no idea what we were starting.

I grew up during a generation that remembers life before social media but also grew alongside it. I remember MySpace. I remember when Facebook was actually about finding people you knew. I remember when Instagram was mostly pictures instead of businesses, influencers, advertisements, reels and carefully constructed personal brands.

Watching social media evolve has been fascinating because somewhere along the way, it stopped being simply social.

It became professional.

It became political.

It became educational.

It became a business.

And for many people, it became a career.

I have spent most of my career in education, but I've also found myself wearing many different hats over the years: teacher, director, consultant, writer, and someone who has worked in outreach and media relations. What I've learned is that social media has completely changed the way we get into rooms that once seemed inaccessible.

Years ago, if you wanted to connect with someone professionally, there was a process. You contacted the company. You found the public relations person. You sent the proposal. You waited. You followed up. You hoped someone passed your name along to the right person.

Sometimes that still works.

Sometimes you send a direct message.

I learned this firsthand while working on an event. We had developed an entire PR proposal, and on paper we were doing everything correctly. But something about the process didn't feel right to me. Instead of going through the PR coordinator, publicist, or CEO, I trusted my instincts and directly messaged the person we were hoping to work with on Instagram.

Within 24 hours, I had a date, a time, and a venue.

That experience taught me something I have carried with me ever since: professionalism matters, but so does being human.

Social media has removed some of the red tape that once determined who had access to whom. A young person doesn't necessarily need to know someone who knows someone anymore. They can follow the journalist whose career they admire. They can connect with someone working in their dream field. They can build a portfolio on Instagram, establish professional connections through LinkedIn, demonstrate expertise on TikTok, or create an entire business from their phone.

That is pretty incredible.

As a teacher, I also think about what this means for the children and young people growing up now.

My generation learned social media as it was being invented. Today's children are being born into it.

There is a huge difference.

We had embarrassing stages without necessarily creating a permanent digital record of them. We could make a terrible fashion choice, have a bad haircut, and say something ridiculous, and—with any luck—the evidence disappeared.

Today's children may have a digital footprint before they can even walk.

And that is where the conversation becomes more complicated.

Social media can expose young people to careers they may never have known existed. A child interested in art can watch a professional animator work. A teenager interested in journalism can follow reporters covering major stories. Someone interested in becoming a chef, teacher, police officer, entrepreneur, designer, or engineer can see people actually doing those jobs.

For educators, that creates an enormous opportunity. Career exploration no longer has to begin with a textbook or a once-a-year career day. The world is quite literally sitting in a student's hand.

But so is everyone else's life.

That is the part we cannot ignore.

Previous generations compared themselves mostly with people in their immediate circles. Today's young people can compare themselves with thousands of people before they even get out of bed.

And adults do it too.

We compare careers, relationships, homes, vacations, bodies, weddings, babies, and accomplishments. The problem is that we are often comparing our actual lives with someone else's edited version.

We see the promotion. We don't see the 40 rejected applications.

We see the vacation. We don't see the credit card bill.

We see the perfect classroom. We don't see the teacher frantically searching for a missing glue stick five minutes before the children arrive.

Social media gives us access, but it also gives us pressure.

And I think that will be one of the greatest challenges for future generations.

We shouldn't be teaching children that social media is bad. That would be unrealistic, and frankly, we would be ignoring the enormous opportunities it can provide. We should be teaching them how to use it intelligently.

Teach them to network, but also teach them how to have a conversation and build healthy relationships.

Teach them to build a professional presence, but remind them that they are human beings before they are personal brands.

Teach them how to use technology, but also teach them when to put it down.

Teach them that followers can create opportunities, but followers don't determine their worth.

Because social media itself isn't really the problem or the solution. It is a tool, and every generation has learned to use that tool differently.

MySpace asked us to create a profile.

Facebook asked us to share our lives.

Instagram asked us to show them.

LinkedIn asked us to professionalize them.

TikTok asked us to package our personalities, knowledge, and experiences into something other people would stop scrolling long enough to watch.

I have benefited from that evolution. It has helped me connect with people I probably would never have met otherwise. It has helped me as a writer, an educator, and someone who believes that sometimes the best opportunities come from simply having the confidence to introduce yourself.

But I also remember a world before all of this.

And maybe that gives my generation an interesting responsibility.

We can teach younger generations how powerful these platforms can be without pretending they don't have consequences. We can show them how to use social media to find opportunities, explore careers, advocate for something they believe in, and connect with people outside their immediate world.

But we also have to remind them of something no algorithm can teach.

Sometimes you have to stop worrying about who is watching, who is liking, and who is following.

Because perhaps the most important thing the next generation can learn about social media is knowing who they are when nobody is following