Over the past month, I’ve been really down on social media to the point where I’ve been paranoid to log in, comment, or post anything for fear of being overwhelmed. I believe they call it social media fatigue and I’ve read about it here and here in the past.
I’ve given this a lot of thought and if you’re reading this looking for a cure all or something like that to fix social media fatigue, I don’t have it for you. I’ve done a number of things to help myself get over this and the downward spiral it can throw someone into (“I’m a horrible person. I want to sleep all day. I hate people.”) and few things have stuck and few things haven’t. But one thing that I’ve noticed is what I’m calling The Collective Uggggh. In fact, I fell into it today.
The Collective Ugggggh is what I’m calling when you log into a social network or read an article on a news site and you see the following filling up your feed:
- Complaining about something work/life related
- Reposting about something horrible that was said/did and then scrolling and scrolling to see pages upon pages of commenting that goes nowhere
It’s called the The Collective Ugggggh because it makes you feel that way inside. We’re all guilty of it. In fact, like I said above I was guilty of it this morning (that’s when I had the A-HA! moment, decided to stop and wrote this post about it).
So what’s the solution? I could say that you could unfriend/unfollow everyone, not comment, delete everything, and a number of other tricks like that but will that work in the long run? I highly doubt it. You’ll miss it. Why? Because social media is pretty awesome despite all of its flaws. It’s great to share, read, and connect with people.
Instead, what I’m going to focus on going forward is positivity. Sure, I may be having a hard day and want to let off some steam, but from now on I’m going to ask myself is it really worth posting about and then spending the next few minutes of my life reading and commenting on? To me, it isn’t. I’ll take that moment, deal with it in my own way, and move on. I’ve decided that chorus of The Collective Ugggggh isn’t worth it anymore.
I hear you. Loudly. Walked away from casual tweeting a few days ago, mainly due to the intolerance of people I thought would be better, who I chose to follow. Not all of them, but more than a few.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/7643328578/
Can’t be done with a wall of negativity to read through. Life is, literally, too short. The thought of, in forty years, grandchildren asking “What did you do in the twenty tens, grandpa?” and me replying “I erm well, read lots of bad things online. And then it was the twenty twenties…”
I hear ya, brother. I have reduced my social media intake to mainly just weekdays; I take a break from it on the weekends unless there is something going on. I uninstalled Facebook from my phone (I still have FB messenger), but otherwise I have reduced my overall social media diet. Too much of a good thing will wreck you over time, and I am just like you in that I’m looking for my limits. I think I have a good deal now, but I’m much more open to change than I was before.
Thanks for the comment Andy. I also got rid of Google+ and FB on my phone and that has helped.
I totally feel the same way. I like your decision to only post positive things. I tend to use Twitter and FB too much to vent and, your right, it is not helpful at all.
Wonderful! I think that with all the powerful vibes put out into the world we can change things around! Thank you for reading!
[…] it’s how librarians talk to library students, tired approaches to library activism, or even what is posted on social media sites, negative and positive attitudes have gotten a lot of attention in the library blogosphere […]