When in a group on social media, provide some detail

There are so many times when I am looking up something on social media and people will say there’s an accident on X Street, but they don’t give any more information than that. Of course, there are going to be times when X Street is extremely long, so you aren’t providing any details that are good for people in the area.  It’s like saying to someone in Ontario that there is an accident or fire on Yonge Street. Yonge Street is a very long street, so no additional information isn’t going to help anyone. 

When you are posting about a store, accident, or any other information about something in a community, please make sure that you are providing some information. A store, that could be in many locations and even many cities, so details are needed to the one you are talking about. Even if you can only post the major intersection that is better than just saying a street and nothing else.  I have even had times when a person has posted “Major Event” and they didn’t give any details of where it was, it was just a major event to them, and they figured everyone would know where it was.

I have been trying my best to ensure that in groups that I am either a moderator or administrator that we try and provide as much information as possible, so that any post can be helpful to lots of people in the group. There have been challenges for people to continue to provide the information and there have been even people that have hated me for wanting the information posted.

It is hard to manage a group when the information isn’t provided and when you ask for that information people can get rather rude which makes it difficult to support a group in so many ways. There have been times when I have wanted to walk away from my role as a moderator/administrator in a few groups, but I always say that I am there for most of the people and if a few people don’t like the rules they can leave.

Please remember the more information you can provide in your post on social media the more people will see it and understand it. If a group asks for more information please understand that the group can cover a large area and not everyone knows the same spot or has access even to the same store/information.

Social Media

 How many times have you heard someone say I am taking a break from social media, and the break lasts them maybe a day if that. Social media, be it Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or any other social media apps are a continual stream of posts.

I know for me I have set myself limits of the amount of time I will be on the social media apps because otherwise it can take over your entire life. There are people that have to constantly be checking their social media accounts because they might miss a post by a friend. My attitude is if I miss the post I wasn’t meant to see it. I know that I have missed quite a few posts from family and friends, but I have had to accept that. I have always told both family and friends that if there is something that I need to know they can either message me or send me an email and that way I will see it.

Another thing that can happen with social media is through the various messaging methods people will think that you are always available to chat no matter what time of day or night it is. This can be a challenge especially if there are time zones involved because your good time to chat might not work for them and vice versa. The best way to use the messaging methods is to write that message but know that it could take a while before you get a reply and don’t get upset if it takes a while.

Social media is a great way to stay in touch with people, but you must understand that not everyone is going to use each social media platform the same way that you do. I know that when it comes to Facebook, I know that there are quite a few people that aren’t on much at all and then there are people who live it in and post multiple times a day. I think this applies to all the various social media platforms because some people want to be seen doing things while others just want to manage their life their own way.

The one thing that you have to understand about any social media platform is it doesn’t work for everyone and if you like one platform more than another.  That is fine, but I might not use that platform at all, so I won’t see your posts and you must accept that.

 

 

Please read the original post

There are so many times that there are comments on a post that don’t have anything to do with the original post. What is important is if you are replying to a post on social media is that you need to read the original post and then comment on that.

Recently there was a post that asked people to clean the dead leaves from the curb in front of your house. This person was simply asking everyone to make sure that the water could drain alone the curb to the city drains to make sure that there was no flooding on any of the streets.

What happens was a lot of people decided to complain that they were asking people to rake their lawns which this person never asked for. It is amazing how many times people make assumptions and don’t read what the original post was about. Of course, I tried to manage it the best I could by repeatedly saying it wasn’t requesting people to rake their lawns just clean the curb of leaves. 

It is amazing how many people only see a few words that are written and don’t read the entire post and then they complain that the original poster is wrong. What we need to do is look at and read the original post to make sure that we understand what they are saying before we post a comment. 

If there is a post that you don’t totally understand, maybe try and ask a question or two before you complain that the post isn’t correct. In this case someone was simply asking for leaves to be removed from the curb to ensure that water could drain to the city catch basins.

Avoiding those distractions

I think all of us have things that can so easily pull us away from what we should be doing. It could be anything from someone just wanting to chat, a pop-up on your computer or an event or an email or just wanting to check out social media for “just a minute or two”.

For a lot of us that have a busy schedule we need to figure out how to avoid some of those distractions so that we can get things achieved. It doesn’t matter what you do I think we have all lost time getting distractions by checking out social media. social media, be it Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or any of the other social media platforms. You think you are going to just spend a minute or two and before long you realize it has been 15 minutes or even more and what have you accomplished. I know for me I have had to set rules for myself because for a while social media was taking over quite a bit of my time and I wasn’t getting stuff done that I wanted to do. Instagram was one of my big distractions because of course as you are scrolling through notices of people you follow there are other people suggested so that means you end up checking out some of those and then follow them. The Instagram reels are something that can take a long time to go through so what I have done now is said I can watch reels twice a day and that is it so yes it may take some time, but I have set that time aside and it helps keep me focused.

I know for a lot of people YouTube can be a major distraction because you want to wait that one video that someone suggested you want and before long you realize that an hour or two has suddenly disappeared because you didn’t just watch that one video that was suggested you then watched a bunch of videos that YouTube suggested based on the video you watched. I think all social media can become a major distraction if you allow it to be.

A lot of companies don’t allow social media channels on company devices but that doesn’t prevent people from checking out social media on their personal devices during work hours. I understand we all want to keep up to date with what is going on in the world, but we also need to understand that there is a time and place or checking out our social media channels.

For me figuring out just how to avoid those distractions during the day has meant that I have been able to get more work done quicker. Sure, there are times when I do give into the social media platforms and waste a bit of time, but I have been able to at least figure out ways that I can maintain a focus on what needs to be done and then give myself that bit of a reward. Being able to understand what your distractions are and how to manage them can make a bit difference on how you get things done.

Hiding behind a screen name

Something that I have been noticing more and more are people that will make negative comments either on Facebook or on YouTube videos. In several cases, the person isn’t using their own name so that they can hide before the screen and just be negative to others.

I am a moderator or an administration for a few Facebook groups and I have noticed that people seem to like making negative comments. Recently there was a simple comment made in one of the groups, and then it blew up into a bunch of back-and-forth negative comments, and of course this happens when you are not monitoring the group. By the time I got to see the chat it had got bad, so I had to step in and take care of this situation. The result was lots of comments were removed and everyone got a warning about being kind and considerate to each other. I really wonder how many people would say these comments to a person if they were in person. I think part of it is that people think they can say anything they want because they are hiding behind a screen.

While watching YouTube videos, I look through some of the comments, and it is amazing how many people will say hurtful comments to a person. I have seen people say a YouTuber was fat, they were insensitive to others, they think too much of themselves. These are just a few of the comments that I have seen. Of course, these are people that are trying to hurt the YouTuber, but I have seen a lot of the YouTubers either ignore the comments or talk about them on their channels with a reply of if you don’t like watching my channel, there are a lot of other channels you can go and watch.

Yes, I so agree with the comment that there are a lot of other channels on YouTube or groups on Facebook that you can belong to. If you don’t like something that someone has said on social media, the best thing you can do is scroll by it. In the case of YouTube, maybe unsubscribe from the channel if you don’t like the person. On Facebook you can either just scroll past the comment and say nothing, which is the best idea, or if you don’t like how a group is managed you can always leave the group.

Hiding behind a screen name may make you think you are better than others, but really what you are doing is showing a weakness that you have. If you can only say negative things about people, remember that everyone has feelings, and we need to respect each other.

 

Why you don't get things done

There are so many people that say, “I wish the day was longer so that I could get everything done that I need to do.”

I was listening to people say this one day, and it made me think about why we can’t get the things done that we want to do each day. I have come up with some reasons that I think can contribute to why we wish the days were longer.

1. Social media – how much time do you spend each day checking Facebook, Instagram and all the other social media platforms. It is amazing how much time you can lose in a day by just spending time looking at all the various posts and feeds that appear.
2. Text messages – so many people figure that if they don’t get a quick response to an email, they can text you because then you will see it and immediately answer it. Well, that is another interruption that interferes with what you were trying to do.
3. Emails – the number of emails that we all get each day can be overwhelming, and we need to learn how to manage them. One thing that I have done is get my phone to only buzz with a couple of specific accounts receive email. I do have lots of accounts on my phone, so I need to manage which ones make noise, vibrate, and just want me to look at them.
4. Unorganized schedule – now that so many of us are working at home, having an unplanned or unorganized schedule can lead to not getting things done what we want to do. For me, I have found that I put all the things that I want to accomplish each day in my planner and then mark them off once they are completed. Sure, things can come up that will impact a day but at least I can see what got done and what didn’t get done and that helps a lot.
5. Other distractions – there are so many other things that can be a distraction and that can be music, conversations around you or just things that you can see that also might need to get done.

We all have challenges that we need to handle, and what I have done is set a schedule for myself for some of the key things that I need to get done quickly during a weekday. This has helped me keep on top of the various tasks, and it also gives me the time to do the other things that I enjoy doing. Being able to see all the different things that I have accomplished during a day helps, so everything I accomplish even if it wasn’t planned gets noted in my planner.

Something that I have found that also works is putting my phone on either vibrate only or silence for a bit of time so that I can focus on the task that I need to complete and that helps. Also, closing all the social media apps, websites, etc. can help eliminate the distraction of wanting to click to see what is new.

Being able to focus on the tasks that you need to focus on can make such a difference, and you feel good at the end of the day knowing that you got some of the tasks done. You might not get everything done, but at least you know where your day went, and it wasn’t entirely spent on social media and answering all those text messages.

 

 

Social media and comments

 

I have been watching a lot of videos and seeing a lot of posts on Facebook and Instagram, and comments seem to be putting people down or very negative.

YouTube

I have this opinion that if I don’t have a nice comment to make, I am just not going to say anything. There are times you can say something, and other times it’s best to keep your opinion to yourself. On YouTube, I have seen people tell the channel that they aren’t good parents, and they are exploiting the children. Other people have said that the parents don’t have any control over the children. What people don’t think about is a YouTube channel is only showing you a very short glimpse into either a day or week in a family’s life.

As a crafter, I also watch a lot of challenges about cross stitch and sure we all have our likes and dislikes, and you shouldn’t ask someone why they would ever stitch such a piece. Everyone is different and that is what we must remember. Sure, some posters make comments I think to start that negative comment flow, but instead of doing that it’s best to either unsubscribe or just ignore those comments from the channel.

Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube

A lot of the time, a post is giving you an individual’s personal view, and you may either agree or disagree with it. There are times that it is best to just not comment on it so that it doesn’t end up as a big my opinion is better than your opinion. I know that I have seen a lot of this type of post and if I don’t agree with the poster's comment, I do the simple thing of just scroll by without saying anything.

Social Media

Sure, in a lot of cases whenever you post a video or comment on social media, you are risking getting negative comments no matter what you say or do. What you need to remember that what you posted in your opinion and if someone doesn’t like it you also have a choice, you can delete the comment, or you can just ignore it.

If you don’t like what someone is posting on any social media, you do have a choice, and that is if you continue to follow the person. If you decide to unsubscribe or unfollow a channel or person, you don’t need to tell them why. Just click that button and disappear, and then you won’t have to see what they are posting any longer.

We must remember that we are in control of what we read and watch, and no one else can control that. If things are to bother, you remember you can also take a break from social media because maybe you are just having a rough time and need that break.