How did they do it before?

Three months here and dozens of Instagram stories, hundreds of Snapchats sent, FaceTime calls galore, Whatsapp groups for anything and everything…

I don’t think you can say that my semester would have been the same without social media. But at the same time, since it became a huge part of our lives, nothing is the same. Out of curiosity, I went to check my registration dates on these different social networks. The most impressive is Snapchat: I’ve been active on it since December 25, 2013. I have been sending photos, videos, and messages to my friends for almost 9 years: 122,481 snaps sent, 298,435 snaps received. On Instagram, I created my account on 29 December 2013 – clearly, I must have received a smartphone at Christmas for these two accounts to be created within a few days of each other. On Instagram, I’m not very active: sometimes I don’t post photos for several months, or even a whole year.

But here, during my exchange in Munich, social media has made it easier for me to meet people, go out and see them again. I’ll give the readers of this post some concrete examples and perhaps tips to follow for those who will be starting an exchange semester or two at LMU. First, if I had to recommend two accounts to follow here, it would be: @daysofmunich on Instagram, an account run by a Milanese expat in Munich for several years who shares in English her best bar addresses, restaurants, outings, visits and other tips to enjoy the city, and the second account would be ESN MESA Munich (@esnmesa), to keep up to date with all the activities organized by this group of German students for internationals.

Then, whenever you meet someone, you get along with, take their Instagram or Whatsapp number to make sure you see them again easily. Time flies here and it’s too bad to miss out on good times with nice people! Also, I’m thinking that I could follow a bit the next adventures of my friends I met here when everyone will be back in their home country. And then I hope we’ll exchange messages to check in regularly. It’s all very well to criticize the superficiality of social networks, to say that they make us dumber, that we waste too much time on them, but I think it’s undeniable that they allow us to keep in touch with people from all over the world, for free and easily.

This brings me to the other point I wanted to make in this blog post: social networks are also a way to keep in touch with your family and friends, whether they are in your home country or on Erasmus elsewhere. In this day and age and in our generation, we have become accustomed to being in constant contact and receiving news very frequently. When you think that a few decades ago, letters were the best way to find out how your friends were doing and that not everyone had a telephone because it was still too expensive, you realize how lucky you are. And you also wonder how people who went on very long journeys or lived abroad kept their spirits up all the time, because here when I was feeling a bit down or a bit homesick, one of my first reflexes was to get in touch with my family. In a few seconds, I could be talking or writing to friends who had left for a semester in Seoul, Rome, Prague, or Santiago. I don’t want to sound like a boomer, but technology is crazy. Maybe that’s also why I didn’t necessarily feel a huge unbearable lack: I had news all the time and I gave a lot of it myself.

I also got into the habit of posting more stories, maybe because I felt I had to show that I was enjoying myself, that I was having fun on Erasmus and that my life here was cool. But I didn’t feel obliged to do so and it was nice to share with my followers on Instagram some of my moments here and maybe also change their minds about Bavaria and Munich. For many French people, Germany is not a very attractive destination, in general and for studies even more so. I think the country suffers from its language, which many consider unattractive: if you learned German in high school, you were in a minority of people who were seen as strange and nerdy. But as the stories went on, more and more of my friends and family reacted to my stories and I felt that they got to know this region a little better. If my photos have made them want to come here or at least aroused some interest, I would be delighted.

I still have a few weeks left here, so this is a chance for me to show my subscribers all the places I haven’t discovered yet and hopefully get them to definitely agree that this is a great region!