Social Media

I am a fickle woman.

I have gone back and forth in my relationship with social media and have a hard time deciding whether I want to be a part of the community of online lurkers or just focus on my blog.  My first (and usually only) inclination is just to blog, and while sometimes I see things on Facebook that pique my interest I tend to get sucked in and end up spending way longer than I had intended lurking, following rabbit trails and sharing my opinion.  Today I "unfriended" everyone on my FB friends list that wasn't related to me by blood or marriage.

NOT that I had many friends to start with, but in one fell-swoop I wiped 'em all out. Boom.

When I first joined Facebook I was one of those people who posted what was going on almost every day.  I measured my popularity by how many friends I had (over 300 at one time) and searched for former acquaintances with fervor.  I lived for the comments people left on my posts and interacted with anyone who posted anything interesting.  Then Facebook changed formats and rather than adjust I actually unfriended everyone on my friends list and closed down my account permanently.

When I timidly joined again with a different email address, I rarely posted updates and only asked for friends I really thought I wanted to connect with. Now my feed can go months without any addition and most of my photos reflect our activity at 507.  Maybe since I have narrowed my audience to just family I will feel a bit more comfortable sharing. Who knows?  I would simplify my life and delete the account altogether except that is the only source of pictures and updates that I have of my grand-kids.

I don't have a Twitter account, but I am marginally on Instagram (again mostly following family) and Pinterest -- another time-sap, but I am not really addicted to it like I was at first.  I spent a few hours there Monday and that should take care of my wanderlust for another month or so.

Then there is blogging which isn't really social media, but sort of.

Oh, how I love my blogs!  Family members are not so enamored, and some have stated flat-out they do NOT read blogs. Ever.  Maybe I am too wordy, or maybe the others are just not all that interested in my life or in clicking the link to actually come and visit, but for whatever reason, all but one or two people who read here are strangers in real life.

I am really okay with that now, although at first I took it personally and thought my family must just not be interested in my life. I love my blogging friends and am willing to share my thoughts with them much more liberally than I am usually willing to share with family--maybe because my blog followers actually chose to be here instead of winning me through the genetic lottery or marriage.

It could be that it is easier to have online friends who are IRL strangers because there are only certain parts of our lives that we share.  I am not self-conscious about my appearance here; I don't have to dress up for our meetings, and when I converse through my keyboard I am very carefully constructing my post to avoid offending.  I am not that way in person, and more often than not am so flustered around others that I say stupid things I had not even imagined were in my head!

So, thanks for coming here to visit, for commenting on my posts, for indulging me by writing delightful prose on your own blog, and for being my friend. I probably won't be bringing you a casserole when you are sick, and I would be useless as a friend to drop you off at your car repair place, but I am happy to read about your thoughts and converse with you when you are lonely. To me, this is the ultimate in social media and I am so grateful for this wonderful online community.