What, me Social?
Who has time for social media? I have things to do, places to be. Okay, so my head says that to me, but do I listen? Ah…No.
I first started on Facebook just to see what it was all about. It didn’t take me long to realize I could connect with a lot of people that I barely knew. It also allowed me to find out more about friends and people that I worked with. Their likes, dislikes, and important events. That was all I planned on becoming part of. The highlight of my Facebook experience was discovering that I had a half-brother, living in France, in 2013 and actually getting to meet him and his wife. You can read more about that experience here: https://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=320
Then came a special professional storytelling social group. I jumped into that one and became more aware of people in the profession, the kinds of stories they told, and the ins and outs of performing.
I decided that that was all the social networking I needed.
Of course, then I retired and now I had to think about promoting myself and finding more opportunities to share. So LinkedIn became another professional tool to use.
I tended to stay away from Twitter until I realized that that was another platform to share writing on.
Slowly my involvement with social media became more pronounced. Not as crazy obsessive as a number of people. But for my age, it took time out of my day.
Social media, though it can be purposeful, became like another book to read. I rarely posted but lurked a lot to keep up on others. I did become more security conscious, so you’ll never see me posting that I’m away or on vacation when I’m away and on vacation.
When the pandemic hit, that’s when social media widened my horizons. For now, I could keep track of and interact with storytellers and writers from around the world. And my name and face at least is getting recognition. I am now interacting through Zoom meetings with people I would never see in real life had I not been on social media and had a presence known.
I am, however, starting to limit myself. I am on Twitter, but only tweet links to stories I write and read tweets from professionals like Dan Rather (a retired newsman) and Marilyn Burns (an incredible math educator). The same goes for LinkedIn. The storytelling media site was disbanded, but now I participate in a Storytelling Guild three times a month with people from all over the world.
And Facebook…well I don’t often post things about myself other than links to writings, interesting cartoons I find, and the occasional things that I’m involved in. I also react to other people’s posts. I personally don’t need to read all of the political tripe that is continuously posted now, nor the rants of others. So I don’t.
It turns out now I do have time to do other things. So maybe I’m beginning to listen to my head. Well, that is, until the next new wave of some cool technological social connection comes along.
