Everyone has some form of social media, but not everyone knows about the unwritten rules of the apps. Especially not the boys. For girls, some Instagram rules include never posting twice in one day, posting at peak times [Times of day where people are most likely to be on their phones, mostly at night.], and providing a theme for your page using certain filters. Some Snapchat rules include not blowing up your stories [Overly adding pictures or videos to your story causing a spam.] using your, always send out streaks, and don’t leave your friends on open [Opening your friends snap and not responding]. On the other hand, the guys usually use it as a place to post their sports pictures, team stats, or their Victory Royale’s [A Fortnite win].
Girls, however, are a bit more complex when it comes to managing their social media pages. Here are a few responses to asking girls what they think rules of social media include, and then a male’s response to that unwritten rule.
“What do you think are some unwritten rules of social media?”
Casey Brooks (Sophomore): “You can’t follow more people than you have followers. You can only post at night, and no posting two selfies in a row.”
Nathaniel Smith (Freshman) Response: “I agree with the followers one, I try to keep my followers to following ratio [The number of people you follow, and the number of people following you] about the same. I don’t really post that often so the night rule doesn’t really apply to me.”
Morgan Swift (Sophomore): “When you have Instagram, you can’t not post for a really long time. For Snapchat, don’t keep sending streaks [When you send a snap back and forth with someone everyday, you’ll get a number on the right side of their name indicating that you have a streak] if the person doesn’t respond.”
Jayden Tomasella (Freshman) Response: “I usually post whenever I feel like it, but it’s usually not a lot. I agree with the streaks rule though, If someone doesn’t snap you back, you don’t have a streak.”
Olivia Kotsaftis (Sophomore): “On Instagram, you can only post at night and you have to keep your posts at least two weeks apart. You can’t like your own pictures. On Snapchat you have to send your streaks out in the morning and at night.”
Nicholas DeLucia (Sophomore) Response: “If those are the rules, then I don’t follow any of them. I only post like twice a year, but my following to followers ratio is all messed up. I don’t always send streaks at night because I’m too lazy, and I also only respond to a few people.”
Haley Wolfanger (Junior): “I would say that an unwritten rule of social media, especially one that I tend to follow a lot, is to not post excessively or too much, on any app really.”
Michael Falcone (Junior): “Yeah, I agree with that, but I rarely post on Instagram anyways. But seeing two or three posts from the same person on the same day is pretty annoying.”
Kyla Drewry (Senior): “I think some rules include keeping anything too personal off your social media pages (like names of other people). Keep your finsta [Your fake/spam Instagram where you only let your close friends follow] funny and not too dramatic. Storying [Taking a snap and adding it to your story] things that are too long and posting on your story when you have a high streak with someone are also a few pet peeves of mine.”
Griffin Davis (Freshman) Response: “In a way yeah, most people really don’t care if you post your entire life story on social media, unless if you feel like it’s really important to share then I can’t stop them. It does get really annoying though if someone posts like 30 snaps of one thing on their stories.”
Maeve Sardinskas (Junior): “The whole ‘You can post one time a day rule is kind of dumb in my opinion, but most people will try to follow it because it’s just the social norm. Also, the ‘rule’ about how people shouldn’t post too many selfies in a row or they will get judged is also dumb. People should just be able to post whatever they want whenever they want.”
Austin Roberts (Freshman) Response: “People should be able to post whatever they want as long as it makes them happy and be pleased with how they are presenting themself in front of all their followers.”
After hearing these responses, it leaves me wondering why girls care so much more about social media than guys do. From filtering their pictures, to worrying about times to post, girls are set on portraying this perfect image of their own lives. They want their social media platforms to reflect upon how they’re loving life, and that they have no problems.
When asking some boys why their Instagram pages usually look messy and uncared for, I got the answer that they just simply don’t care. They have a much different view on social media then girls do. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just what we are used to in today’s society.
Next time you post, consider these rules or don’t, it’s all up to you.
