A while back, I signed off of Social Media. Face Book, Instagram, and Snap chat... I signed off of them all and, not surprisingly, I learned a few things.
First and foremost... I spend WAY too much time on social media. When I signed off, I found myself with an abundance of free time. I'd like to say that I used this time to clean my house, work in the yard, and get my life together. That was not the case. I'll just leave that there.
My current connection with many people is through social media. This once seemed so very shallow to me. Now I think it's okay to have those less than personal connections... and I think that the social media world is actually much like high school...
- there are people you smile at when you pass them in the hall ("friends" whose social media you only look at when it shows up in your feed and you don't comment on it)
- people you sit by in class (people who show up in your news feed and you like or comment on their status)
- people you sit with at lunch (People who you follow closely on social media - you may sometimes have shared status updates from the same event)
- people you hang out with on the weekend (you are tagged in their status updates and you tag them in yours)
- your best friends (who are in your photos and were present at most of the events you post about and have a snarky little comment about the laundry basket you forgot to crop out of the corner of the cute picture of your new dog)
- people you are in extra curricular activities with (people who you connected with online because y'all like the same stuff.)
- Oh... and there are people you stalk... for the exact same reasons we stalked them in high school...
Social Media is a valid way to keep "in the loop" with what's going on around you. I understand the argument often raised to "just pick up the phone and call" and I appreciate the idea of a phone call or a text. Even so, the
reality of the world we live in is that we want want things instantly and we can (instantly) reach a lot of people at once through social media. While it isn't as personal as a phone call, it is possibly the most effective way to get information to a large group of people.
Social Media is as wholesome or sinister as you make it. I've said this for years. You can use it to exploit your body or to spread gossip, profanity, hate and the like. You can just as easily use it to spread encouragement and love. You can use it to keep up with friends and family or you can welcome strangers into your life and possibly put yourself in danger. You can use it to lift people up and you can use it to draw attention to yourself and your problems in an attempt to get sympathy, attention, or to make others look bad. Social Media can be drama filled if that's what you like, but if drama isn't your thing, you can block, hide, or delete anyone on any platform who makes you uncomfortable in any way with what they post.
It is, in fact, exactly what you make it.
Just my thoughts
K
