Social Media can be Good

 

FaceBook. Twitter. Instagram. Reddit. SnapChat. YouTube. TikTok. Flipboard.

There are more, but you get the picture. I like to refer to these as timesucks. I once read an article that said we are all at a greater risk for terrorist attacks (and other crimes) because we're not paying attention to our surroundings. The author has a point. 

You can, however, use these tools to benefit you in a very personalized way. I have a few thoughts about how to do this, but would love to hear other suggestions.

1. Choose your favorite platforms, not all of them. There's not enough time in the day to follow them all, and if you do that, you may be missing out on the world around you. 

2. Customize what you see. With each of these, you can select your interests, or the algorithm learns over time. Remember to set the privacy settings where you want them to be. Most of these give you options to hide things you don't want to see in the future, which helps a little. I don't know what I selected in FlipBoard to get paranormal stories all the time, but I admit that I enjoy reading them. These companies know us better than we know ourselves.

3. If you're using a big platform like FaceBook, join groups that share your interests. Heck, you can even start your own groups like I did with my Missouri Genealogy Blogs group on FaceBook. You can also follow things that you're interested in. For me, that's gardening groups, genealogy groups, and travel groups. I like to follow places I'm going to visit soon, just to keep up on information and learn about the area. Each US national park has it's own page, for example. Some of my Facebook/YouTube favorites are The Adventurs of A + K (travel), St. Louis Veggie Gardeners (gardening), Growfully with Jenna (gardening), St. Louis Historians (local history), National Park Road Trips (travel), Rescued Old Photos from Missouri (family history), . . . You get the idea. The more I can get the "good stuff" to flood my feed, the better I am at keeping away the "crazy." 

4. Limit the amount of time you spend scrolling. Don't let life pass you by.

5. If you do something that can help others, share it! I have a blog because I think someone may be interested someday in a common ancestor I've written about or a place I've visited. Recently I started using YouTube to post what I call "Leslie's Video Postcards". It's a fun way to watch my vacation photos/videos. I do it for myself, but I noticed a lot of unknown people watch them too, probably people planning their own vacations. You can, of course, keep those private. I do that with the little videos I make of my grandkids. They like watching themselves on YouTube, and I made them private  to maintain some level of privacy.

So go use social media for the good things it can bring. It can be a fun and valuable tool.