My original title for this blog was “Did I Already Write This Blog?” Because I honestly could not remember. I feel like I spout about this topic so often that I’m honestly amazed if it hasn’t made it into blog form yet. Maybe I’ve just read a lot of blogs about this? Honestly, as I’m writing this I’m having deja vu.
Anyway. Social Media is taking over our lives. This we’ve certainly discussed. Sort of. See: I Just Don’t Care About Your Boobs. Sorry. There is certainly Social Media for the good. That does exist. Like Tweets like this one:
I do love Facebook. I love seeing what my peeps are up to. Clearly I blog (when motivated). I can’t really get into Twitter (which I lovingly call Tweeter). I think TFC has a Tweeter account. Chick A can chime in on that. I have no idea what our “handle” is. I’m just proud that I know it’s called a “handle”. I just signed up for Pinterest. Holy hell is that scary. And overwhelming. And confusing. I have an Instragram account that I sometimes think to update. Mostly I am on Facebook. And Facebook has literally become where I get my news from. Which I know some people would deem appalling. But that’s just life now. People who have more time to pay attention to what is going on around us than I do update their FB statuses with info that I then read and adopt as fact. This can be dangerous, but I have to say, my FB peeps are generally spot on. And if something is going on locally, they are quicker to update and more accurate than our local news station. Sorry WMUR. This has proven to be fact time and time again.
What is my point here? I’ve lost my train of thought completely. I watched a news story once that was talking about this whole new group of moms called “Instagram Moms”. These are moms that are so focused on how their lives look through the eyes of their Instagram followers that they will spend hours trying to get the perfect picture of their child. It’s like they just need to prove their lives are worthwhile and perfect. Which, let’s be honest, is total BS. Life is not perfect. I can fill my Instagram page with a thousand perfect pictures of my two little angels, but I can promise you one thing, there will still come a point in the day where I am calling one or both of them an a-hole (quietly, to myself, or maybe out loud to Mr. Chick E). Maybe not every day. Maybe once a week. Who knows. The point is that just because your life looks perfect in pictures, doesn’t mean it is. This news story went on to define three questions you should ask yourself before you post something on Social Media:
- Why are you posting it?
- Who are you posting it for?
- Does anyone care?
Which I think makes amazing sense. Right?? I’ve applied these questions ever since watching that story. Especially number three. And it has honestly stopped me from posting things to FB. Because if the answer is no, then it doesn’t go up. Some other guidelines:
- No “vaguebooking”. I love this term. It’s that annoying person or people that we all know who post status updates like “I just cannot believe this. How will I ever survive?” and then never ever respond to the 45 people who say “OMG ARE YOU OK? WHAT’S WRONG??”. It’s like why put it out there!! Now you’ve peaked everyone’s curiosity so tell us dammit! WE NEED TO KNOW!
- Never, EVER, post about work. I cannot even believe people do this. I don’t care how much you hate your job…I guarantee you will hate unemployment and not having a paycheck even more.
- Enough with the “I have the most amazing kids/husband/sister/brother/mother/cat/fish/gumball/pool/insertanywordhere!!!!” posts. You do not have the most amazing kids. You are not the proudest mother. Your sister is not the best in the entire world. OK? That’s all subjective. Everyone thinks their kids are amazing (sometimes). (I’m not trying be negative, just honest. And honesty is the best policy. That’s what they say.)
- You don’t need to post 43 status updates a day. We care, but not that much.
I just solved my deja vu mystery. Please read this blog about Facebook. It’s so spot on. #18 kills me…so true. No one really knows when your birthday is anymore, OK? It’s all a sham.
I’m having a hard time focusing today. I’m feeling extremely ADD and don’t quite know what I’m trying to say without just straight rambling. I guess the moral to this blog is that while social media is slowly rotting our brains, it’s also good for watching funny videos of cats and kids.
-Chick E
Too Funny Chicks 