I was laying down trying to fall asleep with my post holiday/every day anxiety running through my head last night and I was thinking about social media. I like social media. I like to get on facebook and twitter. I've even been considering instagram (heaven help me). But there are just so many things that you can't post anymore without being judged or openly hated and it's stressful!
- Don't post too many details of your life (over-sharing).
- No posts about how you're feeling without details (attention seeking).
- No online quiz results.
- Don't post about the weather in your area that other people are probably posting about.
- Definitely no writing about the sheer volume of people posting about the weather.
- Avoid too many pictures of your kids.
- Or pets.
- Pop song lyrics are out.
- Stay away from slang words people might consider annoying (like hubby or preggo).
- Don't ever type something political.
- If at least two of your friends have already posted a video/article don't post it.
- No commenting on significant world news/events/results of sporting events (woo many people are already doing that too).
- Never play facebook games. They'll secretly post and request and notify for you.
- Don't link your twitter and facebook so they say the exact same thing.
- Oh, I forgot. If you have kids don't post stories/anecdotes about things they said or did.
- Sonogram pictures are out.
- No fashion blog type pictures either.
- If other people are posting about a popular movie/song/show don't bother posting anything about it because you're just adding to the "noise" in people's feeds.
That list is certainly not exhaustive. And truly some of these things drive me crazy. Being the imperfect person that I am (I know, shocking) I've even complained about several (both online and in real life). But what's the point? To shame people into sharing only the parts of their lives we want to hear about or think they should share? I don't know. It seems to go against the purpose of social media and if you don't want to know those things about someone shouldn't you just unfriend/unfollow/block/hide posts from them?
Also, typing/sharing this may make me a hypocrite. I haven't yet decided, but see my note about being imperfect above.
