Social media makes everything different. It really does.
I had a rough few days this week (which means my family did too) that included numerous trips to different doctors, three EKGs, a load of blood tests and spending ten hours in the emergency room.
Spoiler: I’m okay. Not 100% yet, but getting there.
The reason social media comes into this is because I was like… how much do I share? Where do I share it? Does anyone care to hear about these little dramas that afflict my life, or is sharing that just attention-whoring? If I do tell the story, what angle do I take? “Shit be scary”, “Emergency rooms are an amazing study of human nature”, “Just the facts, ma’am”, “Ten freaking hours in emerg?!?!” or something totally different?
Ten years ago these things wouldn’t have ever occurred to me. I would have called my Mom (once things were resolved probably–I wouldn’t want to worry her) and possibly emailed a couple friends, but mostly people would have learned, or not learned, about my little scare slowly over weeks and months as we ran into one another socially. That’s all different now.
I have friends, family and acquaintances online. I have a following. It’s not a big one LOL but it exists.
That all changes things.
Now I have to figure out what to share, how much of it to share, and where to share it. The Twitter crowd isn’t the same as the Facebook or blog one…
What about you? Do you have a policy of sorts, or do you figure it out as you go? I’m doing the latter, but seriously thinking about coming up with some sort of policy… even though history has shown I’m not fabulous at sticking to them LoL
Anyway, I’m back at work, though at a slightly slower pace than usual. So if you were waiting to hear from me you ought to soon 🙂
It IS a hard balance. Not just with health stuff, either, but anything personal.
Right? If I were better at compartmentalizing and/or secret identities I could just keep a personal journal and a public one… but I kinda suck at that LOL I did okay when LiveJournal was still a *thing* and I could just use filters, but since most of my readers/followers/friends/family aren’t on LJ anymore that doesn’t work LOL
I don’t share much about my health at all online for reasons that have nothing to do with my following. Part of it is just a privacy thing, and part of it has to do with the ubiquitous data aggregators that mine our social media and sell the psychological profiles they create from them. That policy might change (and almost did last year, when I was ill), but that’s where I am today.
I’m also becoming increasingly concerned about the way social media changes my behavior both on and off line. And it isn’t just because of social repercussions, either. Social media affects consciousness, attention span, etc.
It’s process for me, for sure. And I love your social media ‘fasts’. I’ve always thought they were really healthy.
So, those are my random, somewhat disorganized thoughts, FWIW. All my best to you. Take care of yourself, write if you want to chat, and get well soon.
Thank you Ceallaigh. Firstly for your email you sent a while back which I have read and re-read a half dozen times but each time I try to sit down and give it the response it deserves something pulls me away from my computer, but also, thank you for this.
You bring up a lot of issues which are related that I have thought of, and some I hadn’t. I have noticed how social media… how is it Neil Gaiman put it? He said it ‘gets into the cracks’ of our brains/lives. Something like that. It’s totally true. When I’m not on a social media retreat (which I still intend to take, if not on a scheduled basis) social media is always there, a vague presence in everything I do. Kinda creepy really… But I don’t feel like it’s something I can (or want to) walk away from completely. So there’s got to be a balance point, right?
I hadn’t even thought about the data miners though O_o It’s a little scary that I hadn’t, but it’s true. That could put a whole new spin on things, potentially.
If I share such personal info, I tend to do it after the fact rather than giving a play-by-play. Part of this is because I’m probably the last person in the civilized world without a smartphone, but the other part is I don’t want to annoy people. I see when people do this online and I tend to skip over such drama. It just seems creepy, especially when they start complaining about some aspect of it (I don’t want to know what a b***h your nurse is or how your boss is a jerk). To me, social media should be light, fun, and entertaining, not a place to spam the world with every sordid detail of the day. I want people to be happy to hear from me, not go “ugh, you again?”
I keep all electronic/social media contact to a minimum, but it’s hard. Having been stalked & having my identity stolen taught me the value of anonymity.
But that also sets up barriers when you’d like to tell an acquaintance who may become a friend some personal details, but have to double-think doing so. It keeps people at a distance and truncates relationships.
Like everything, a double-edged sword.
But whatever your health issue was…glad to hear you’re okay!