Monday 30 March 2020

Hearing the news on Social Media.

If you're like me with facebook you'll be a member of lots of local groups, blogger pages and news channels and you'll have online friends like me who post random photos throughout the day, clogging up people's timelines. I think they call it FOMO if you're not involved in everything.

I split my social media time between facebook, instagram and twitter and several blogging groups. I also spend (waste) hours watching facebook videos, they're just too addictive, aren't they?

As a consequence I miss an awful lot of actual real time news. Not opinions, not local/international news, but real news from real people such as moving house, weddings, pregnancy announcements and births.

I'm not a big fan of breaking news in a public forum. I post according to my audience so twitter is for random comments and observations. Instagram is for photos of things that make me laugh or puzzle me or I think other people might find interesting and face book is my life story, where I share our travels/holidays, house moves, photos of visitors and people we visit and pretty much over the 3 areas, along with my blog I share my life online with family, friends, acquaintances and random strangers.

But when I have news, like we're relocating, our health, the kids getting married, the birth of a grandchild, I actually make an effort to tell those who are important to me, either face to face, over the phone or a private message online, before the general riff raff get to hear about it. Sometimes if I want to ponder something I'll post in a secure group to get feedback from people with similar situations before I let people know about our decisions.

Recently we discovered news, that we thought the person sharing it, should have told us about personally, not for us to either miss or randomly discovered several days after their big announcement. It's not the first time and it won't be the last for sure. These people are no longer on my 'tell first before making public announcement' list.

When I see posts on the public timeline announcing a birth or a marriage or a house move etc and I'm not tagged, I assume that those who they want to know have been informed personally and private conversations, congratulations have been made and that really the only interaction they're looking for now is a like or a casual comment. I won't send a card, buy a gift or even make a big fuss over the public announcement as I assume I'm not part of the inner circle of friends or even count for much in terms of my place within a wider family. I certainly won't remember your child's birthday or your wedding anniversary.

And do you know that's ok with me. It's like hearing news about a celebrity, I'll think 'oh that's nice' but I don't send them a card or a personal message and I might not even click the 'like' button.

I'd be interested to know how you feel about sharing news over social media.

Does it bother you if people don't like or comment on your big announcement?

Do you prefer to tell people your news face to face where possible or do you post publicly?

If so, do you feel upset if you don't get the response you're looking for?






10 comments:

  1. I've never been a fan of social media. And now, that it's the only form of contact with other humans, I find it reassuring in a way - people are there somewhere- but still very distanced.

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    1. I'm having much more contact with family and friends since I arrived back in the UK

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  2. I guess it depends what the news is. There aren't that many people I'd need to specifically tell first, but yes that would happen directly. Although some friends could be more prompt telling me things - maybe if they had social media I'd find out quicker.

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    1. I'd like to think a friend of 20 years would tell us in person they were having a baby rather than reading it as 'news to all' on facebook

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  3. I usually try to tell people close to me important news in person too. My kids often use social media. Maybe it is a generational thing?

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    1. I think sometimes people think if it's on fb then you'll see it, often I miss news unless tagged as it scrolls by so quickly

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  4. I don't mind sharing over social media once my nearest and dearest have been told personally. I don't like tagging people and if they see it, they see it x #PoCoLo

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    1. Once you've told the people who really matter that's good enough for me

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  5. I definitely have a tell first list, not that I need it much but I agree telling those that really matter matters. #PoCoLo

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    1. I'd never dream of not letting my nearest and dearest first

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