Social media plays a varied role in everyone's life. As I consider the way my many friends and family members use social media, I notice multiple variations. I have friends that never use social media--they don't have accounts and never take part in any social media share. I also have friends who have annonymous social media accounts--they likely take a look now and then at what others share, but don't share themselves via social media. Then there are some that share all the time, and some that share more selectively. Some only comment on other's share, and some share and comment.
Since the onset of social media in your life, I suspect that you've probably engaged in the medium in a number of different ways. My first interaction with social media occurred mostly via the teacher networks I was connected to. Joining Twitter connected me to countless educators and their ideas, conferences, books, and exploration. Those connections via tweets and Twitter chats greatly improved my teaching. It was an accessible, positive venue for growth for busy teachers like me. I loved it.
I also enjoyed social media mostly via Facebook and sometimes Instagram as a way of keeping up with family members and friends' life events. I mostly enjoyed seeing images and reading about friends and family members' many travels, adventures, and celebrations. Of course, there were moments of discontent with regard to this. As I suspect is true of everyone, I admit I would get jealous now and then when a friend shared a marvelous trip, family accomplishment, or celebration, but those moments were seldom as I reminded myself that in life's journey we all have our share of high points, low points, and plateaus.
When it comes to social media, we all have a choice about what we share, how often we share, when we comment, and what we say. I always think before I share, and I use that "Will I feel comfortable with this share if it becomes front page news in the New York Times" litmus test about what I share. Sometimes I do share something super personal and opinionated, and sometimes I don't. When people critique my share, I listen and take their commentary seriously.
There's no one way on social media, but as I think about my own social media use, I try to follow these general rules:
- Be positive, and if you have something not so positive to share, think carefully about whether you will share that or not.
- Only use names/images if positive, and when you use someone's name or image, you may want to ask them if they are comfortable with that.
- Don't brag--this is a tough rule since people define "bragging" in a number of various ways.
- Be careful about posting about trips prior to a trip because you don't want the general public to know you're not at home.
- Take a look at your follow/friend lists once in a while, delete people you're uncomfortable with. I generally like to have a friend/follow list of people I know well.
- Think about how public you want to be about your life--do you want people knowing all about you? Maybe yes, maybe no.
- What you post about your children may be with them their entire life--be careful about what you post about their lives.
- Think before you post.
- Decide on your focus for each social media medium you interact with. For example, you may decide just to use Instagram for travel while using Threads for ideas and Facebook for family and friend share.