Most of my friends don’t blog. Few of my family members use social media. My husband has vowed to never join Twitter or Facebook. (And my kids are too young to participate!)
The result? I’m a social media loner.
And those of us who are loners need to think through our options.
Option #1 Beg Your Family and Friends to Join You
You’re a constant nag. You frequently beg your family and friends to join the blogging world. You apply peer pressure and say things like “You don’t know what you’re missing out on!” and “When are you going to join the 21st Century?”
Option #2 Hide Your Social Media Use
Nagging hasn’t worked. You’re tired of begging, so you simply act like you’re not a social media junkie. You downplay (or hide) your online activity -- “I’m just finishing up some work again. Me? Blogging again? Of course not!”
Option #3 Set Boundaries
Your family and friends think you’ve gone mad. They’ve attempted an intervention. So you set some serious boundaries. You turn off your blog on the weekends. You don’t Tweet at the dinner table. And even though you miss out on a few posts, it’s worth the trade off.
Option #4 Live in Two Worlds
You’re comfortable in your social media skin. Hey, it’s just another part of your life. You let your family and friends know that, while they are welcome to join you, they will never be replaced by your online world. You choose to lead an “integrated” life.
Are you a social media loner? If so, what are your coping mechanisms?
Have a good weekend!
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15 comments:
Sometimes it feels integrated, but most of the time I feel like I should hang it up, or do it on the sly. It's slippery like that.
Oh this is awesome and I fit in #4.
Some of my nearest and dearest friends won't sign on to Facebook and don't read my blog. It cracks me up but I've learning it's just not their thing.
Hey, in response to your comment about you and I being alike...that's why your book made me laugh so hard. I identified often.
~ Wendy
almost like an addiction you're not sure you have? This is a gread post. But can you consider yourself a loner with so many followers? or do you think you have to have one with the other?
I cope by thinking this way - I'm a writing loner, as far as my house goes, but online or in my writing groups, I'm just one of the team.
People who don't write would never get that.
This post made me think! Thanks so much!
This is a GREAT topic! I'm in the same boat - I have 3500 blog followers and 12,000+ Twitter followers but most of my friends and family have never visited a blog in their life and don't have a clue how Twitter works. It makes me feel not only alone but a bit crazy.
I sell social media to my family as part of my work life. :) And honestly, I don't mind being a loner. Working at home means work boundaries are more transparent than I sometimes prefer.
Great post, Susan! I'm so blessed. My friends and family are mostly social media buffs. I've got it good!
I just started blogging today! Nice to stumble upon your blog!
Great post and so true for many of us. My husband is a geek, so we're both into it though. My two sisters, though, are in the "tell me again, how do I find your blog" and "FB is dumb" and "what is that Twit thing." "Who has time for that stuff." So I vacillate between trying to get them more involved and just being the one in the family "who has nothing better to do." While writers want to read and research everything and can barely go an hour without looking up something, I suppose there are a lot of people out there who are still wondering "what is Google, anyway."
Oooo. This is good. I'm probably a bit between 3 and 4. But I'm wondering if I'm in denial as I sit here in my empty house, ready to jump up from the computer as soon as I hear the garage door go up and then pretend I was never really commenting at all.
Terrific post, Susan-- so relevant to many of us! I try to keep a balance, but it can be difficult. My husband does NOT get it, so I try to be respectful of that, while still feeding my blogging desires. It's a bit nebulous at best, so I just take it one day at a time.
I'm a loner too. But my husband has hobbies that he spends time on, so we work it out ok. It's mostly a matter of timing, I think. But I still think he thinks I've lost my mind :).
i sorta live in two different worlds. my hubby is on twitter and facebook but our twitter friends are very different. mine are bloggers and his are weightlifters. so i feel like sometimes we have very different lives.
I just pretty much live in two worlds. Some of my teacher friends like to read my blog, though. Three of my sons blog and so does my sweet daughter-in-law.
My husband? His goal is to be the ungoogleable man.
i can't tell you how many times I've found out things about my kids that they neglected to tell me by stalking them on FB!
As for my blogs, my kids and old friends rarely read them, which hurts a little. But my new (usually FB) friends do and that partly makes up for it. I just try to be grateful for those who do and not think about those who don't.
I'm trying to keep up with Twitter, but I don't text so I usually just forget about it.
Great post :) ... I like to think I do the integration fairly well ... but I do sure feel that chasm of separation between my and my non-blogosphere friends...
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