This week's Tell Me Something Tuesday feature is about social media! TMST is a series hosted by the lovely Rainy Day Ramblings, and currently assisted by a team including my lovely friend Roberta @ Offbeat YA
March 9th: Social media: love them or hate them?
Both. Very much both for me. In some ways, I find it a lovely way to connect and show love to people you don't often get to talk to. For example, I love it for being able to interact with friends from university who have moved away. When one of my old buddies got accepted for their doctorate, I was able to celebrate with them - many, many miles away.
And yet, there is that pressure of what to portray. When things are tough, do you tell people, or keep silent? Is this the time to post photos of food instead? It's a hard balance to find, and then you still have to consider privacy. Do you only have your close friends on there? Co-workers? How to decline a "follow" or "friend request" to someone you see often, but don't want to share as much with?
From a blogging perspective, I enjoy it, but can find there to be more pressure with it than with the personal accounts now that I am older. If I don't post, will people still want to read my blog? If I talk about something other than blog content, is that okay? (I've learned that it is!) I do find it difficult to keep my content engaging though.
Long story short, I suppose, is that although I do enjoy it, I would be alright getting rid of it. I more like looking at other people's content rather than posting my own! I'm trying to pick up my engagement with it, as it is nice to connect (especially lately), but it's something that will take time, and I'm not in a rush.
What do you think?
I think I feel that pressure most often on Instagram. I always second guess what to post on Instagram, and I rarely ever post pictures of myself. Social media can be quite stressful. So I enjoy sites like Twitter where I don't necessarily post photos, but I can share anything interesting/funny. I feel like I can be myself on twitter.
ReplyDeleteI have both a personal Instagram and a blog-related one. My personal one, although I don't necessarily post A LOT, I find it not too hard to post just fun things (although I think I've only posted my own face like...three times?). My blog one? I am absolutely horrendous at knowing what to post.
DeleteYes, absolutely agreed about Twitter :)
"including my lovely friend Roberta @ Offbeat YA".
ReplyDelete💛
"How to decline a "follow" or "friend request" to someone you see often, but don't want to share as much with?"
I think it's very much easier for me, since I have an account in English (only on Twitter) and no one in Italy knows about it, so I can keep my personal life and bookish life separated. I mean...I do post personal stuff sometimes, but I don't have to deal with anyone from real life reading it, or worry about declining friend requests (in my case, not following back, or being followed by someone whom I don't care for).
As for posting about your real life struggles, I found that, if you have a curated group of friends you interact with often(ish) or know from other platforms, they're always sympathetic and willing to listen. At the very minimum, you get a cute gif to bring a smile to your face 😉.
"I more like looking at other people's content rather than posting my own!"
Haha, same. I pretty much only post my blog links/bookish content and occasional life updates, but most of the time, I comment on someone else's tweets. Thank goodness there's no pressure - unless you want to make social media tools to make your blog grow, which is too much work if you ask me.
Yeah, I don't have too much difficulty about posting about my real life struggles here...well, I do and I don't. Very few people from my personal life know about this blog (and even fewer, if any, actually look at it). My only struggle has been "Yeah, but it's not a blog about ME, it's about books and movies and such". But I realized that things have changed, and my blog is allowed to as well. And yes, the gifs are always appreciated!
ReplyDelete"unless you want to make social media tools to make your blog grow, which is too much work if you ask me" - YEP! I originally got Twitter for that, and realized that even though I would love more followers, it isn't my priority and not overall worth THAT much work haha. Besides, there is always time for that in the future ;)
Balance is definitely an issue with social media. Like, sometimes I like a person but don't necessarily want them to see everything I post, right? Or share things with people from high school that I really don't see anymore or talk to, but they sent a friend request? It can be tough to work all that out!!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a love/ hate haha
Absolutely!
DeleteI really like it best to connect with people from all over that I've become friendly with.
ReplyDeleteI've stopped the doom scrolling and learned that I don't need to follow everyone back just because. I'm also fine if people unfollow me if I annoy them lol I don't keep track of the stats or anything.
I hate FB but otherwise enjoy it all in moderation & try not to take it all too seriously.
Karen @ For What It's Worth