Social Media

I recently had a 'wobble' about Facebook and Twitter.  I was temporarily blinded to seeing the point of them, particularly Twitter which I am relatively new to.  It probably happened after hearing the comment that Facebook was now classed as for 'old' people. 

Facebook, having been around longer than Twitter, is not as difficult to master as some 'senior' generations thought and so they have caught up with the youngsters of the family and friends who regularly 'post' all sorts of things that they may previously have thought was dangerous, gossippy, etc.  We 'oldies' have realised it can be quite fun.

I guess the younger ones didn't want their parents being their 'friend' and accessing information about their night life or girlie/lad behaviours from the pictures posted to make their friends laugh.  So they moved over to Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and suchlike to out-wit the oldies.

Last week I found I had posted a picture on Fb of a new phone and phone cover I had.  What was that about I asked myself?  Did I want to share the joy that comes with owning something nice?  I think this was the reason.  But what of my friends seeing this - what did they think?  I could kid myself that only one or two people actually saw the picture, as no more than four 'likes' appeared before the picture was out of sight.  Daily posts by others soon tip your picture from top spot and, like we used to say about newspapers - it is soon history or chip paper.

Then a friend I met in town commented on my new phone cover and I thought, "how trivial - why on earth did I think anyone needed to know I had a new phone cover?"  It is a bit like all those food posts.  Are we really interested in who has had what for dinner, who is drinking coffee where, and who is out on the town getting drunk?  I know there is an option to 'unfollow' people but generally I think people just 'scroll down' their pages glancing at things that don't really interest them just in case they miss a good bit of news.  I suppose that is what we do with a newspaper or magazine only read the bits that interest us.

There is, of course, an upside to these sort of posts if you are a positive, joyful sort of person.  You could be inspired to eat more healthily, visit the same coffee shop, restaurant or nightclub, run a marathon or visit a spa.  If it is a relative you are 'following' (doesn't it sound creepy) it is nice to know they are safe, who they are with and learn about their life that they probably don't tell you too much about.  Sharing moments that makes you proud of them, friends, pets, places, achievements, babies born etc. helps raise our sense of happiness.  The latest trend of 'selfies' are often skillful and show people loving life and living it to the full. Not sure what all the 'pouting' lips are for though!  Wanting to be kissed?

Another useful side to social media is all the information about meaningful charities, health issues, missing persons, crime etc, together with inspirational/motivational quotes.  The 'Aunty Acid' jokes and other 'funnies' make you 'laugh out loud' LOL.  For me social media is far more entertaining than the doom and gloom of daily newspapers.

Twitter has a limited use of words attached to 'handles' (addresses like mine @tweetsue13) and 'hashtags' #goodfood (where you can click on and gain access to anyone else's tweet with the same hashtag).  The 'like' button (thumbs up symbol) of Fb is a 'favourited' star on Twitter, and the 'share' on Fb is now a 'retweet' on Twitter.  The jargon just has to be learnt!

I have had a few nice short 'conversations' with a couple of authors on Twitter which kept me going initially, but writing short, snappy tweets or replies is not my forte.  As you can tell from this Blog, I rant on a lot.

However, it can all become a bit addictive - how many 'likes' have I had, who has made comments, who needs a reply?  Emails are fast becoming a thing of the past as Fb messenger also enables you to have a private 'conversation' with your family or friends which of course are accessible on so many devices these days.  Letter writing and actual talking is crowded out.  When did you last hear someones voice on your land line telephone, other than a salesperson?  The postman certainly doesn't bring me nice long hand written mail anymore.

It would be quicker sometimes to read a newspaper, ring, text, face time a few friends but the worldwide web has caught us like a spider catches a fly.  We are 'into' the web now for all sorts of avenues - reading books, listening to music, finding hotels, maps and directions, playing games, finding a partner, promoting businesses, looking up words and medical conditions, banking, etc etc etc.  It has no limit.  When I am away from an Internet signal I miss it!  We oldies are now 'down with the kids' and our grey matter is stretched and tested but we have more time for it.

I now have to learn self-discipline about time spent on the net.  I turn off devices at 9 pm as I believe it does affect my sleep if I don't have an hour or so break before bed.  But it is almost the first thing I reach for in the morning and then an hour can disappear in a blink of an eye.  So my next 30 day challenge is to organise my time more effectively.