How I want to use social media
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This text is based on a social media post. I updated and expanded it into the blog you're reading now.
I am using a few terms that you may either not be familiar with, or may usually use differently. Here's a short explanation:
- "Boost" means to share a post into your own feed for all your followers to see. As I understand it, it's what Twitter people call a "re-tweet".
- "CW" is short for "content warning". Your post will be hidden behind a button and you can describe the content of your post so that readers can decide for themselves if they want to reveal it or not.
I have always used social media for fun, never for getting news or talking current affairs. I had a "no news, only fun" policy. For many years it worked. I mainly hung out in specialised forums and on Instagram. On Instagram I only followed people in certain niches, who, including me, all stuck to posting within those niches. So everything I ever saw was stuff in those niches. Even when ads and sponsored posts started to flood and eventually drown the timeline.
A few years ago though I came to the fediverse. It is famous for showing you only and all the posts and boosts of the people you follow in your main timeline. There is no automatic way to show you posts from other people. (Actually there are, but those are not relevant here and to explain them would go beyond the scope of this blog.) I came there with the same "no news, only fun" policy I've had for years. But not everyone wants to avoid news and politics and so posts about it started to slip into my timeline. In addition I started to find interesting accounts talking about certain parts of politics (social, cultural, environmental, these things) that I find important. I started to follow these people and boost a lot of their posts too. It somehow just happened. It took months for me to realise that I stopped enacting my own policy.
Which I took as a sign to act on it. You see, I work in a school in the city. I see and have to work with all the problems in my daily offline life. I need peace and fun in my private life. And the number one space to get that has always been the internet for me, ever since I first discovered it in the very late 90s. I want that back.
(That's why I like to ask for comfy, cozy stories. I do not shy away from conflict and drama, that is what makes a good story. But I want hope. So much more hope. I want hopeful endings. I want to know that there is something to live for after all the hardship.)
But back to social media... So I had to change things a little. However, I didn't want to unfollow all those people who do great work, and I also didn't want to mute them. Here's what I've been trying instead:
- adding (key)words to my word mute list and see how that changes my timelines,
- boosting less political content, especially when there are no keywords (for people to mute) or CWs,
- and being more conscious about using CWs myself, should I post about newsy stuff.
I've been doing this for some weeks now. Some things are working well. When keywords are used in a post, these get filtered out. I also boost less political stuff. Though that gives me a bad conscience. Which it shouldn't.
Unfortunately not everyone is using hashtags or (good) keywords. I wished more people would. If you do not like to use content warnings, then using hashtags would be really nice. It would help me to build the feed I'd like to have. And others too.
Of course you could say: "But Elena, why are you following these people if you don't want to see what they have to say?" I understand that. But here's the thing: I do want to see what they have to say, but at a time that suits me. I do want to read the news, but at a time when I feel ready for it.
I've not been the biggest user of hashtags, but I do see how they are helpful in making sure that my posts can be filtered out. I am starting to see hashtags less as a tool for discovery only, but more as a tool for filtering. That goes in both directions: filter for what you want to see, and filter for things you do not want to see.
I have to adjust my habits when composing posts as well. I am not always successful and forget to add certain hashtags or CWs. It's a process. But one I am certain is worth it.
-Elena.
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