Navigating Social Media

navigating social media

Outfit Details:

Hello Ladies! How many of you have a daily routine that includes social media? I do, I do! It’s one routine I’m constantly trying to change because I find myself spending to much time of social media. Sounds crazy, right? I’m a blogger and I’m trying to reduce my time on social media, it’s a constant struggle. I want to spend my time on social media thoughtfully and not do endless, mindless scrolling. I’m sure some of you feel the same way and that’s why I’m sharing my ideas for navigating social media.

I consider myself lucky, I missed the whole social media chaos. Facebook didn’t come into light until I was several years out of college and being the late bloomer that I am, I got on the bandwagon late. By the time Instagram came out I had to find a younger co-worker to teach me how to use it. So I technically didn’t grow up with social media, I added it to my life by choice.

However, I can easily get sucked into “Neighborhood Watching” on social media and I’m pretty sure you all do it. It starts slow. I’m on my friends page looking at pictures and then I notice she knows someone I went to college with, so I move to that person’s page. The next thing I know I’m on this random person’s page who went to grade school with a girl I knew in college and her friend dated the old bachelor Nick Vail. True story! And the best part is I don’t know any of these people and just blew an hour of my life researching them. Seriously?

How do we stop the madness and how do we do a better job at navigating social media? I’ve identified three epidemics that are lurking on social media and ways to not fall victim to them. Keep reading to see what they are.

Facebook Fake

You can see this epidemic miles away. It’s the perfectly posed photo with the perfect smiles in the perfect setting. It’s the photo that makes you think “gosh my life totally sucks and their life is totally perfect”…but is it? What I love about these photos is most likely they aren’t a true picture of reality. I see it happen in real life all the time. There is screaming, yelling and then a moment of perfection and the picture is taken and that is what captures “real life.”

And there are the women who constantly complain to their friends about their boyfriend or husband but magically love them to death on their birthday or fathers day and post it on Facebook. How does that happen? It’s Facebook Fake. In general, social media makes people feel like they have to portray this perfect life when they really don’t need to. Chaos and messy lives are real and that is what makes us all real humans.

My advice for navigating Facebook Fake is to take what you see with a grain of salt. Don’t look at pictures and compare it to your life. Look at the picture, like them, and move one. Not everything on Facebook is real or true to life and you need to remember that.

Instagram Cold War

My favorite social media platform is Instagram . I love the idea of a constant feed and a collection of your photos in one place. I also love the Instagramers that organize their feed by color or create picture collages. It truly is an art form.

I was out for drinks the other night with some of my girlfriends and we got on the subject of Instagram. My friend coined the term Instagram Cold War and I was eager to learn more. The Instagram Cold War is when a friend or acquaintance never likes your photos, but likes everyone else’s posts. Even better is when they watch all your Instagram Stories, but don’t like your photos. It doesn’t stop there, you join in and start not liking their photos. Pretty soon it’s an all out cold war!

The biggest question I have about this is why does this happen? It actually takes more effort to not like photos on Instagram. In the age of social media, the Instagram Cold War is the new “you can’t sit with me at lunch” plague sweeping the nation for adults. It’s a little funny to see adults acting like this, but when you peel everything back it comes down to people having bad intentions, period.

My advice is don’t participate in the cold war. Genuinely like the photos you like. If you watch someone’s Instagram stories then like their photos once and while. Your footprint on social media isn’t private and most users can see when you visit their page. If these people are your friends then act like it and take an interest in their photos and their social media.

Social Media Isn’t Social

I know that social media is running the world these days, but it’s actually not promoting anything social. It’s so easy to hide behind the platform you are on and sit alone in your house and troll the internet. Social media sometimes limits actual social interaction and promotes screen to screen typing.

Break free of that and make social media social again. Go out there, comment on posts, and actually interact with people. Have a virtual conversation. Make your internet friend become your real friend. I recently went way out of my comfort zone and reached out to a girl on Instagram to meet up. I’d been following her for a while and she lives in my neighborhood and then I saw her on a WTTW program talking about a great cause she is involved with. We ended up running into each other around town one day and it was totally natural to go from the internet to real life. We all live on social media so make the most of it and use it to its fullest!

Now I’m sure you are all thinking, wait a second, this girl is a blogger and some of her photos look staged too. Guess what? You are exactly correct. Those photos are staged and take a lot of planning to do. But some of them are just thrown together. Behind every good photo you see are about 10 bad photos. You also need to keep in mind I’ve most likely spent hours planning the outfits, I’ve left the house a complete mess to take these photos and my fabulous photographer (AKA my husband) is directing every move telling me to stand straighter, keep my eyes open, and turn to my good side.

My blog is my business and I’m in the business of sharing my life timeline to connect with all of you. It’s also my business to share what I love in fashion and having crisp photos to highlight that is part of the business. So yes my photos are planned, and in ways that I hope you all enjoy and love. I want my l love of fashion and life to shine through in the best possible light. I hope you all enjoy it!