S is for Social Media

As I’ve written before, I’m not a terribly social person. I am an introvert and too many people are just not my thing.

The nice thing about social media is that I choose how much I interact. If I don’t feel like talking to people, I don’t open the app.

I have varying relationships with each of the platforms. Facebook is just the family/old friends/occasional game platform. I don’t spend a lot of time on there and I’m pretty careful what I post. And also extremely careful who I follow and allow in my space.

Instagram is fun for posting pictures but not really “social” to me. Yes, I sometimes chat with people on there and like their pictures, but it isn’t something that I have any desire to spend a lot of time doing.

Twitter is my primary social media presence. I certainly don’t tweet as much as I used to. I was quite social and chatty on the TL when I started. I still am much more social there than I would be if I had to see and talk to people, but not to the same extent.

Why? Partly, people come and go and when they go suddenly, it’s frustrating and worrisome. Are you OK? Did I say something wrong? Especially when you only have a Twitter handle and no other contact information, there’s just no “end.” No one has an obligation to tell me anything, obviously. It’s just a loss that comes with being online.

Then there are the people who hurt you either intentionally or unintentionally and make you pull back. I try hard to remember that there is an actual person on the other end of the conversation and act accordingly. There are definitely times when it’s all a big game and it hurts to know you were played.

And, of course, the cliques and politics get to be a lot at times. I’ve learned to mute a lot of words and unfollow people who make my space feel unhappy. There’s plenty of reality in my offline world and I come to Twitter for friendship and kink and content sharing and a laugh or two.

Twitter has given me some great friends. Offline friends. Twitter has given me a lot of really good laughs and I can find blog posts that make me think or make me want to explore something new. Twitter has given me some bad experiences that made me wary and want to avoid social media.

So, in the end, it’s been more good than bad. But, I’ve learned to be much more cautious about who is allowed in my tribe.