The year is winding to a close, and one does tend to take stock of life in general. No this is not a roundup post. I thought of writing one but then I decided against it. Just sharing a few reflections instead.

The other day I was talking to an acquaintance. She loves to talk about herself and went on and on about her new friends and all the time she spends partying. That is all good, I said. Then she said that I must be aware of her social activities because she posts a lot of pics on FB. I told her that I hardly ever checked my FB profile except to post updates of my cooking posts or stray birthday or milestones pictures. So, I have no clue what is going on in her life and that of others who rely on FB to be some sort of updates to all their ‘friends’.

That lead me thinking about social media and how its relationship has been with me in the past year. So, let’s take it channel by channel:

Facebook

Somewhere down the line, I have outgrown Facebook. I truly have. None of my school or college friends are any longer active there. A load of people that I added during the peak of blogging days I have never interacted with or hardly know.

So I recently sat down and pruned my friends list. Removed 100+ people whom I never interact with. Now I am left with about 260 friends and that list is also too long. I have a feeling that I will be left with fewer than 50 in my circle in a year or two maximum.

Since I don’t log in much, I don’t really follow anyone’s updates. The one thing that has kept me on Facebook is groups. I am a part of few food groups, a curly hair group, reading groups, a perimenopause group, pinterest groups, fitness groups and perhaps some more. I enjoy genuine interaction and learn useful information there. So I guess I will keep my FB profile active as long as I am a part of these groups and have my blog pages.

Rest FB is banal. I say that with zero bitterness or anger. Like I said, I have outgrown it for social interactions.

Twitter

I like Twitter. I know there is a lot of yelling and shouting here. But, I don’t really follow accounts that are ranting all the time. I mean, seriously, how do people do that day in and day out? But, I enjoy the few interactions that I have on twitter.

Again, I have blocked and muted a lot of accounts who are in perpetual verbal diarrhea mode. Also I am not too much into politics. Twitter can be enjoyable if one does not get too involved. Plus, I have a timer of 30 minutes daily for Twitter. Works well. 🙂

Instagram

The one social media platform that I genuinely enjoy and engage on is Instagram. And I see myself sticking around here the most in the coming year. I mostly follow friends and people who are into food, fitness, dog and health domains. Luckily, none of the accounts I follow are very political. Because I quite hate that. Please don’t make your followers subject to your views one way or the other unless you started out as an account sharing that. Because otherwise, it just leads to unsavoury discussions.

And I love the collaborations I do here. Completely in line with what I believe in. I have done a few giveaways too because who doesn’t like a gift?

Pinterest:

It is technically not a social media platform but more of a search engine. Yet, Pinterest is of interest to me as it provides excellent, sustained traffic to my blogs.

I need to give it more time in terms of creating more pins, pinning more etc. I have been overhauling my Pinterest account in the last couple of months, and I am already liking the results. So I expect to spend much more time on Pinterest in 2020.

WhatsApp:

I am seriously sluggish on WhatsApp. I hardly open the videos that people enthusiastically forward. This is the worst platform to reach out to me because I hardly ever check the updates.

I have never understood the glee in forwards and all the debates that people get into. It is tiresome just to watch. And then the fake news which peddles on it.

Better medium to reach out would be an SMS or an email. I am prompt there.

Have I missed anything?

So, I have been pretty disciplined in terms of spending time on social media. I have Digital Wellbeing App on my mobile so my Apps are shut out once I cross the time I have set for various social media platforms. I don’t have any notifications enabled so I only see updates when I log into platforms. All these help with sanity and keeping one away from wasting time in idle browsing. I really would like to spend more time reading and hopefully 2020 would be better in that sense.

So tell me what is your relationship with social media these days? Does it bore you or genuinely make you happy? Or did you wish to deactivate and leave?

19 Thoughts on “Social Media This Year

  1. I find this post so relatable & relevant, Rachna.

    Of late, I ended up purging my friends’ list on FB vis-a-vis the current political melodrama that has been unfolding in the country. People just don’t seem to tolerate a difference of opinion. And when you try to uphold somebody’s fake news peddling, it shatters your real life cordiality into smithereens.The same goes for movies.

    And Ah! I’m done with all the crap that WhatsApp enthusiasts have been dishing out over ‘family froups’, ‘college groups’ etc. I have muted all of them & those just stand as mere ‘Happy Birthday’ groups to me now. Too much garbage, nausea, cringe & fake news to handle or even download to find out. I still need to reach your stage of Nirvana there; LOL, since the only thing I do these days is slap a fake news-busting link on the actual fake news content being peddled there.

    I’m still naive with Twitter & haven’t got into any brawl there yet.

    Well, who doesn’t love Pinterest & Instagram? I’ve luckily found the most engaging followers on these two platforms. I cannot miss out Quora too. Quora is great for helping out people seeking answers we may be aware of. However, sadly, there too, a lot of Indians seem to be really jobless to post utterly bizarre questions.

    So, yes, I guess, I need to exercise more control over timing myself strictly across these media. And I must say, your content is something I really am fond of. Very straight forward, interesting & inspiring; whether it’s about fitness or cooking.

    Wishing you & your family a really happy & blissful new year, 2020!

    Cheers to a new decade!

  2. Social Media has definitely changed a lot and I say that with no bitterness whatsoever.

    For me, it’s now Instagram followed by my Facebook groups that I enjoy being in.

    Whatsapp is primarily for family and close friends. Twitter, I hardly use anymore since I have outgrown it.

    In general though, I think social media itself is on the wane, except for those deep, abiding connections we form with a group of select few. That’s the true value of the platforms and I’m grateful for the connections I’ve made over the years.

    Wishing you a splendid 2020, Rachna 🙂

  3. There are days I wish I could completely ignore Social Media. But I do like my facebook profile (not page) followed by Instagram.

  4. I could so relate to everything you’ve mentioned here. A big no to FB these days, no to political accounts on Twitter and yay to Instagram! 🙂

  5. I can relate to this post! Instagram is my happy place. I love the beauty and the gorgeousness there and there’s no hate and angry spats! I am not comfortable sharing my personal life on social media per se. So, FB, Twitter and Pinterest are for my blog. Whatsapp, email and SMS are for communicating with family and friends. I’d like to check out Digital Wellbeing App. Thanks for sharing about it!

  6. Oh I hear you Rachna!! I can ditto on almost all of your views here. I too have outgrown FB and am there cause of the blogging stuff. I have been pruning the friend list too but somewhere down the line I have started putting people in a never there list which has no access to most anything on my profile.

    Twitter is my go to for a little while in the day and Pinterest too gets some attention from me. WA is a total waste of time for me and I dont go there too often.

    Its Instagram which has my undivided attention and I am looking to set this medium up more in sync with what I want in 2020.

    The app sounds intersting and I will check it out too. Thanks for sharing it!

    Great post and very well analysed!!

  7. I really don’t give much thought to social media. I do enjoy being on FB, Twitter and Insta but there are phases when I can switch off from all of them. Glad you found your happy place on Insta. Social media can really drain one’s time and energy.

  8. Honestly, I think I also only like being on Instagram. Other than that I’m only on the other platforms due to my blog. I don’t like the debates, the negativity that people spew on these mediums and prompty unfollow or mute them. One thing I have learnt over the years is that everything on social media must be taken with a pinch of salt and that keeps me away from wasting time on it. I think there will come a time when we might outgrow social media completely if not for our blogs.

  9. Hahaha, I was nodding at everything here.

    I’ve outgrown FB too. If I didn’t have a blog, I probably wouldn’t be on it at all! Twitter, is something that I go on in phases. I’m either there or not. Mostly not, actually. I only share blog posts out there. Instagram, I love. I’m more focused on my book page now than my personal one. That’s the only place I spend some time browsing. I hate whatsapp forwards and stick to it only for communication. Emergency ones, that too. Pinterest I go to only if I need ideas, else I totally ignore it.

    Having said all this, one day I know I’ll go off social media for good. The sooner, the better.

  10. Happy new y Rachna

  11. I could so relate to this. FB is a waste though I haven’t pruned my friends list. Will get there. But if I did not have a blog, I did not need FB. I like twitter and Instagram. I am always away from politics and negativity so my twitter feed is simple and happy.
    I need to learn Pinterest and use it well to drive some traffic to blog. Will get there in 2020 may be 🙂 A good post Rachna and relatable.

  12. I wish I was as disciplined to shut off the apps. Though I mostly use Instagram and FB but scrolling through the feed is a problem and reading the clickbait articles. Wish I was reading books instead. I would have met my reading challenge last year ? Will change it this year. Have already started.
    I think I need the app to stop the apps considering I have turned off the notifications.

    All the best for 2020.

  13. Madan Chavan on January 5, 2020 at 3:09 pm said:

    wishing a happy & healthy new year–

  14. I think for most of the platforms I have similar opinions too. I like being on Instagram and even that I don’t check it as often as I used to. Even I’ve switched off notifications on Instagram and Facebook and check only when I log in. Though social media is good to us bloggers, there always needs to be a limit. That keeps me sane.

  15. Many people seem to be losing interest in Facebook, these days. It’s not the social hub it once was, that’s for sure, but still good for blog traffic. Instagram has wonderful groups for people interested in photography, which is where much of my time goes. Twitter I use mostly for sharing blog posts (other people’s as well as my own) and rarely even notice any political rants and ravings. Ugh to those! 😛 Pinterest is definitely worthwhile for blog traffic generation. I think there is a general decline going on with social media. People are spending less time with it and being more selective.

  16. I feel exactly the same about FB and twitter. I am even less active on twitter. FB is great for groups. So much to learn from people’s real life experiences. I love Pinterest and Instagram. I actually do a lot of my searches on Pinterest than Google. Instagram is great to find inspiration and follow niche accounts. But their algorithm is absolutely frustrating.
    I do love whatsapp though. It has made commenting with friends and family so easy. I love the convenience ?

  17. Haven’t tuned in here in a while, but when I do always a treat!

    I found a few curious bits in your Social Media year review. I do have a few folks on FB that I haven’t met in person yet, but most of my FB friends are people I have met, known, interacted with, trust more or less. I do prune the list every now and again, but only a little. By varying the content of my posts I get the attention of folks that 90% of the time won’t like or say anything, but when the topic resonate with them hey would speak up. And lastly, a few friends have told me that they follow my updates but prefer to stay quiet. Fine by me. What really ruins the experience for me is the folks who share all day long without any opinion/commentary of their own. My feed is filled with them and…commercials! I have tried more than once to reduce the amount of commercials to no avail. And these two last bits is what’s pushing me away from FB. Still, the easiest way to update 500+ folks with personal news.

    Twitter – I’m still figuring it out and I’m only using it for “branding” use – bicycling advocacy, creative writing, environmental issues, traveling. I recently did one of these ‘I’ll follow you if you follow me’ and already regret it. If my feed before was a river to enjoy, with slower and faster days, now it’s white noise in which the good content is struggling to stay afloat in the shite storm. I agree with you – who has the time to dump so much tweets? do they think anyone is reading it? what about content? I’m following a marketing guru and her mantra is “content”. I might perish, but for now I’m sticking to organic growth and interaction of my connections.

    Instagram – I hate to admit it, but people like pretty pictures. And I do take pretty pictures, but the iterations feel shallow, so for now I’m mostly watching what others do and figuring out if I have use for it. What irritates me is all the selfies – did we not get fed up with our own beauty at last? I guess not yet.

    Pinterest – I only have an account to be able to check out pins that I stumble upon in a google image search.

    WhatsApp – along with FB messenger, it’s the bread and butter of my voice and video global communication. Skype almost lost me after it became Microsoft product due to issues with login. I also use Viber because a few stubborn friends won’t go on WhatsApp (now owned by FB) and Skype (owned by MS).

    Groups – I don’t do group chats on any media aside from one – my cousins on FB. We need it as we live in 4 counties. FB groups – I am in a few only, after having learned a lesson to be selective.

    I do want to compliment your food photos – they are getting better and better! And I bet the food is delicious 🙂

    Do you think for an average folk (not trying to promote a biz, not branding themselves) all these Social Media channels make sense? I used to treat FB as my friends playground, Twitter as newspaper, Instagram as travel inspiration, Pinterest as Mom’s shopping/decor list 🙂

    Thanks for letting me comment and apologies if it got out of hand 🙂

  18. Hi Rachna, visiting you after so long! Sorry!
    You are doing so well in keeping social media at an arm’s distance. As for me, I too feel the FB has lost its charm. I too pruned my friends’ list sometime back and intend to do it again.
    I am rarely on twitter, except to thank people who share my posts, and that too, I often forget.
    Instagram is better, but I have set a timer of 10 minutes and as soon as it reminds me that I have spent 10 mins in the span of a day on the platform, I get out of it. Whatsapp is okayish, but I find texting on WA a real pain. I just forward some jokes to cousins and 2 – 3 close friends once in a while and that’s it. I can’t get into lengthy discussions over there.
    Pinterest needs some attention from me. I visit there almost everyday but for lesser time these days than I used to earlier.

    You know, slowly and steadily, we are all going to get really bored by our smartphones and the social media channels and go back to the old times of using a landline phone to communicate with our near and dear ones–as in really communicate. And, I am sure that time is just around the corner.

  19. I’m not on Twitter and Insta. FB, same feeling…I keep pruning it every now and then and get rid of a bunch of people who don’t interact…but stalk is what I feel.I follow AP politics on FB and trying to cut it down but only becoming more….I still keep posting few updates…whatsap am the opp of you…I’m on whatsap all the time except while sleeping which I need to cut down a lot..but now the kids classes, groups, coordination everything goes on whatsapp including my work. So, can’t avoid it. Hope you are having a good Year! Wish you and your family a Very Happy New year and Happy Pongal!

Do not leave without commenting. I love a good conversation :).

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