Over the last few months I’ve written a couple of posts about social media. I’ve shared all my little peeves about it and how to engage with audience. It’s such an essential element for a blogger to have, especially when they’re starting out. It helps you market your posts, correspond with brands and chat with your readers.
I’m a bit of an enigma when it comes to social media. I rarely use Instagram or Facebook and only venture onto Twitter, Pinterest and TikTok. Kind of obviously why my views are always super low! Haha! I started blogging back in 2014 and the way we use this media has changed so much.
It’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve allowed myself to control what I read/watch. You can easily get overwhelmed by news, posts and opinions on these sites. My mental health has constantly been triggered by comparisons, unrelated images and nasty rants. If I’m going to use these sites daily, why shouldn’t I market it towards my personal tastes? I shouldn’t be ashamed to mute or even block accounts.
It was around February last year when I finally had enough. I was sick of seeing news about politics, reading tweets from celebrities I didn’t like and even being subjected to videos of animal abuse. My Twitter had to show all the fandoms I loved from voice actors, merch and fan chatter.
I wanted to surround myself with people who make me feel wanted and care about what I tweet. I wanted to be excited to click onto the site and enjoy what I saw. Yes, that means watching adorable cat videos! Twitter wasn’t the only place that I changed things. I did the same on Youtube, Pinterest and TikTok. There is something special about motivational quotes, successes of friends and fangirling news!
This time yesterday I was asdf-ing over some Tom Holland news. That is definitely the kind of news I want to see every day!
As I’ve gotten older, my tastes have changed. Content creators who I used to adore have changed or disappeared and it’s easier for me to see videos/posts with fewer subscriptions. You don’t even want to know how many people I used to follow because they were ‘cool’. I’ll admit that unfollowing certain people was painful at the time but I had to be honest with myself. When did I last watch/read their content? Did I enjoy what they did?
The one site that I’ve had to be brutally honest on is Twitter.
Photo by Eaters Collective on Unsplash
It took me a long time to feel okay using the mute and block options. Guilt was what had previously prevented me doing this, but I decided that I had to put myself first. First I muted words that I didn’t want to see, then moved onto accounts. I hate the idea of blocking people unless I have a very good reason. That reason usually is they’re either obvious spam accounts or adult ones. No-one needs to see that on their timeline!
I’ll be frank with you: I have muted friends in the past.
Muting them doesn’t mean that I don’t like them. Muting them just means that they’re a little triggering for me. Obviously people probably notice when I mute them and unfollow. If that was you, sorry! I swear it wasn’t personal! One of the biggest things I’ve tackled this year is blocking spam accounts. Yes, they make me look like I have a bunch of followers. They don’t read my blog though! I’m just purely a number for them.
Doing this has taken me down to under 5000 but at least I know my followers are people who are real.
If you’re thinking about looking at your own social media accounts, here are some tips:
- Don’t be afraid to unfollow someone.
- Try not to feel upset if you’re unfollowed.
- Take a break if you need one.
- Follow accounts you love/who are positive.
What have you done to make to make your social media more self-accessible?