Disconnected how social media tried to ruin my time abroad. BY HANA LOGGINS PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAUREN DOMAGAS
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was sitting at home one night, scrolling through Instagram as I ate my noodles and semiwatched a show on Netflix. I suddenly stopped on a photo of my friend, Hailey, laughing with a couple girls in front of the Eiffel Tower. She was studying abroad that semester and I had been living vicariously through her photos. It looked like she was going everywhere, too — Amsterdam one weekend and Berlin the next. It was agonizing to watch her live such a carefree existence far away while I was stuck in my hometown. Her life seemed perfect. One thing that has become increasingly clear in recent years is the importance of social media in young adults’ lives. It has become a part of our daily routines, the place we go to validate our own experiences. But, when it comes to studying abroad, it feeds us many false expectations, leading to disappointment when we don’t immediately love it in our new host culture. Social media makes it tremendously easy to show people exactly what you want them to see and nothing else. It allows you to post a photo of your outfit just before a bird takes a giant shit on your shoulder (but make sure to only post that shot on your fake Instagram account, you have a reputation to uphold on the public one). Social media also tends to make us think that studying abroad will immediately change us for the better, but growing mentally and emotionally doesn’t just happen overnight. Paris is a big city. It’s a lot to take in at once. Moving here, from our beloved hometowns, usually requires serious adjustments. A second-year student at AUP, Isala Gray, says “Living in Paris, you really have to love yourself, because you spend most of your time alone and it’s hard finding people to connect to.” When I told my friends back home that I was going to study abroad in France, they added to my already high expectations. I naively believed that it was going to be easy, that as soon as I got to Paris
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