I love social media.
I remember the first time someone told me about Myspace, I could hardly wait to get home and see what it was all about. I used to spend hours on it, trying to reconnect with old friends, sprucing up my profile and finding the perfect song for people to listen to when they landed on my page. When I made the jump to Facebook I started a similar process all over again…and then again with Twitter. It was fun getting reacquainted with people and getting updated on what’s happening in their lives. When a friend would write something, I was always quick to try to respond. It seemed to me like every status update I read was an opportunity to start a conversation and I loved it.
Then things began to change for me…
I remember adding friends that I barely even knew.
The kid that I had a class with in 4th grade.
The friend of a friend that I met at a pool party. We didn’t really know each other, but the book of faces told us we should be friends and now we are.
On Twitter it was much worse. I quickly began following people and people began following me right back.
Lots of people.
People I do not know….at all.
The crazy part? I thought it was really cool.
Then one day the conversations died.
Status updates stacked upon status updates. Reading through my Facebook timeline became tiresome and on Twitter I had to create groups just to keep up with what was happening. Now when I type a status update I don’t expect to even get a response and I rarely comment on what my friends write. Social media became nothing more than a time waster for me.
I am not ok with that. Are you?
I believe the best part of social media is the SOCIAL part.
I want to get back to that.
I want to be engaged in conversations with those I care about and care about me.
I want to see people leverage social media for something good. Really good. I know there are people that already are and that excites me!
Over the next couple of days I am going to share some of my ideas about how to use social media well.
Please take a moment to share with me some of your thoughts or frustrations with social media?
I have a love/hate with Facebook.
I love the encouragement it can bring and the connections that have grown stronger through this one website.
On the other hand, I’ve seen people for who they truly are. Some vain, some downright toxic, and then Im forced to choose A) Hide their updates or B) Delete them.
It takes a lot for me to delete people. When I delete someone, I feel like Im deleting them out of my life. I usually give them a reason why. On the flipside…some people have really hurt me by deleting me as a friend when I know they are still on Facebook. Seeing them comment on another friends update is an awful feeling. Why did you delete me (out of your life)? If I said something that bothered you, couldn’t have you just said so?
I also hate the quote a day’s, the vanity picture of the day, people discussing politics…it’s made me a bit jaded. Insecure is a good word for the deletion. Facebook has even conjured jealousy out of me.
I think, overall, we were better off not knowing if someone was just at the vet or they finally popped that zit. At least I found a lot of people much more interesting with the mystery.
That is well put! I love your perspective and honesty!
It’s all in how we use it. It’s not the greatest and it isn’t purely evil either.
Thanks for sharing.
Oh…I did pop that zit finally.
I’m pretty honest! I didn’t focus enough on the positive. Like I said previously, its connected me in a way with some people that I did not know as well as I would have liked, and now we have these fantastic relationships. We encourage each other regularly. One friend and I send each other things in the mail back and forth (she is in San Diego)…this was a girl who went to high school with my husband! I didn’t even know her prior to her friend request. I can call her one of my best friends now. Weird huh? Thank you Facebook!
I remember Friendster, then MySpace (I do miss having a song playing on my page!), but Facebook obviously found the niche. I never started on Twitter. I think Facebook is enough of me for everyone on the interwebz.
I also wish Facebook was used for (what I believe) is it’s intended purpose…to re-establish or further develop a connection. But, unfortunately many people use it only as an outlet to vent, criticize, or make their otherwise boring life sound eventful. To each his own, but I am going to intentionally try to make a positive impact on my list of friends. I think if the majority of my family weren’t in another state I would eliminate it from my life all together, but I know they appreciate feeling connected with my family.
There have been many days when I got on facebook and it ruined the remainder of my day because of someone else’s thoughtless comment…that’s a shame. Maybe we should all consider what we use it for and ask ourselves…”would I still say this to him/her if he was standing right in front of me?” Facebook is a great example of the power of words. What a difference we could make if we used it for building others’ up!
So true Dana. I really try to keep positive…I do not want to ruin anyone’s day. If Im having a bad day, 98% of the time Im going to keep that to myself.
If I didn’t live away from my family, I’d probably do away with it altogether too.
Oh and I am seriously just dreading election time again. Wow…the last election had me ready to delete my account. The nastiness coming from both sides was enough to ruin my day.
I read something on Easter this year that did ruin my day. I told the person they were wrong and deleted them. I hate that Facebook has that power, but this person only posted negative things and their comment was my last straw.