The Truth About Social Media

I purposely have not had a mobile phone for many years now (until my brother gave me his old one just after my 50th birthday), though I haven't been able to set it up just yet.

I have been using social media - blogging, chat groups, Facebook and YouTube - now since 2001 (if you can count Yahoo groups and the old 360 degree blogs, as well as the now defunct MySpace - who uses them apart from musicians).

However, I have only started using Facebook since 2007: my brother put me onto it.  Then I found it was a great way to get back in touch with old friends, make new friends and to promote my art work.

The trouble is with Facebook, and (to a lesser degree) other social media is that it becomes terribly addictive.  It also can make people self-obsessed (.i.e. narcissistic) and when people don't get the attention they crave, they might worry about others not liking them and thus become disheartened.  Hence, they suffer from anxiety and depression.

Another likely side effect is identity politics, which can be bad when taken to extremes.  As well, there is a decline in actual social skills and social interaction, and manners.  Some psychologists even say it leads to addictive behaviour because people get that 'dopamine hit' when they get Likes from other people.

I have been posting on Facebook via my iPod Touch, and quite frankly, it (the iPod Touch) hasn't been working terribly well of late.  It doesn't charge up very well and both my FB and FB Messenger apps drop out when I am trying to use them.

Maybe this would give me a chance to get off Facebook and help me not feel so compelled to share so many posts.  It might relieve me of the worries about having to walk on eggshells for some people whose feelings might get hurt (even though my feelings probably matter very little, if anything, to them); feeling disheartened when someone is having more fun than me (or for some reason, their lives are better than mine); or alternatively, feeling smug when I am doing better than them.  Not to mention that I am sick to the back teeth of other people stepping on my feelings too!!!

Anyway, I will see how this new iPhone thing pans out - I don't know how to get it up and running but I will work something out.  Maybe I will just limit it to emails, phone calls and text for the time being (as Paul would suggest).

cheers,
Night Owl