Social Media: Bad Habits to kick in 2017
January 13, 2017
There are many written pieces on how to and what to do with Social Media, but what about those bad habits which we may now be adopting which we really must kick? Toilet seats up, elbows on tables, being late for appointments, speaking with your mouth full, dropping litter and much more can really annoy some people, so can the way we behave on social media attract the same unwanted negative attention?
Social media is a way of life for many and certainly attracts users from across the globe at all ages. Can we say that social media is a bad habit in itself and also are we adopting bad habits when we use the social media platforms that we love and spend so much time on?
Social media – A bad habit?
- When to use social media – Of course, not when we are driving or doing other things which requires our full focus for safety reasons. Get yourself a good night sleep and do not get your phone out as soon as you are between the sheets and end up reducing your sleeping time by spending hours flicking through social media updates.
- Be unsocial whilst on social – It happens all the time now it would seem, using social media when we should be socially engaging with others around us such as at meal times, when we go to see friends and family, during our breaks at work etc.
- Comparing ourselves to others – It is great to see what is happening in the world via social media as news is shared fast and most occasions you get the latest photos and videos to back things up. Some people are sharing things which can cause us to compare our lives to others, ie what people look like, the lifestyles they are leading, their perfect families, high wages, designer clothing and more can for many set depressive thoughts in our minds when comparing them all to ourselves. Do we really need to hear from your friends how good life is, your close friends have the perfect boyfriend / girlfriend, your best mate has lost 6lbs on a week’s diet etc. Not only comparing, but looking back can be an issue too, are you cyber-stalking your ex partner, following their posts, getting yourself upset if they are getting on with their lives and sharing positive updates?
- A bit on the side – Social media can very much so be addictive and can cause us to procrastinate away from what we should be doing (I hold my hand up to this myself). Logging in to see what is happening or watching a video on YouTube can be taking our concentration away from what we should be doing instead and this is highly relevant when it comes to work / business (unless you are lucky enough that social media is your main business). Try and keep set times in your day for social media and not be lured away to quickly scroll down your Facebook timeline.
Bad habits on social media:
- Spelling – Check your grammar and your spelling, especially checking for mistakes in people’s names / business names. Make sure if you are quoting something or even just commenting that you have the full facts in place.
- Your content or stolen content – When you use social media you must make sure that if you share content that it is yours to share and that includes not only images, but quotes, blogs, videos, reference to surveys etc. I see many of my own photos and quotes used by other social media users and it is annoying.
- Automated and robotic responses – Social media was created so that we could be more social friendly via the internet so try not to be someone who uses it as a cold robot as such, simply using canned responses all the time is easy to spot and can be seen as being anti-social and even rude.
- Spamming – Try not to spam on social media, though most of us expect marketing to happen, we just do not want to see an overload of it and especially not trying to ram products and services down the throat of people that it is not relevant to and who have not asked to be marketed to.
- Too many posts in one go – Timelines for people are what most will be using to see what is happening from the accounts which they follow. If you decide to push out say 20 tweets in one hit then you are only jamming up someones timeline and causing them to have to scroll though all your tweets to get to other people’s updates.
- Hi-jacking conversations and going overboard – Try not to jump on board other people’s conversations unless you politely introduce yourself and of course are looking to share relevant content. If something is causing you to want to say something then do it in moderation as many eyes could see what you share. By all means have a rant, but use caution too especially when it comes to politics and religion as this will cause a big negative effect if what you say is spotted by someone with opposite views.
- Privacy – Think carefully regarding what you are going to share, is it yours to share and have you permission to share it? You may have been to a family party, but does the person in the selfie with you really want their face on social media, are you sharing what someone else said on social media without their permission?
- Being vain on social media – I think we have gone past the phase where we were sharing everything we were doing from shopping in town to drinking coffee, but we are now seeing people posting too many selfie content which can also be annoying. Are you posting that update as you feel it is something your followers will be interested in, or are you simply posting it so that you get attention? Social media is not a replacement for a social life remember, if you are becoming depressed using it or not getting the likes / shares / comments that you need to make you feel good in yourself, then it may be time to switch off from social media for a while and step out in to the real world and socialise.
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