Socially Acceptable

I love social media! I seriously love it.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MySpace (haha, remember, MySpace, poor Tom!) the list goes on and on.  Everywhere we look we can connect with people from all over the world.  Social media has helped the world become a much smaller place.  I have friends online from China, India, Brazil, Vietnam, Germany and other countries.  There are people that I am friends with or follow online that I haven’t seen in years but because of social media I feel like I know what is going on with their lives, kudos Zuckerberg.

However, like any loving relationship, there are some things that drive me absolutely crazy about social media but it’s not social media itself as much as it’s the users of social media!  Here are my top 9 things about social media that drive me bonkers!  I was going to make it an even 10, but hey, I like to be different.  See if you can relate:

1. Game Requests – I do not want to plow your virtual farm (there are times when I hope that birds overtake your farm and it turns into a virtual Hitchcock movie).  I do not want to be in the matrix mafia with you or visit your digital island, but hey, this is just me.  If you would like to invite me to your actual farm or if you have a private island in reality, I would be more than happy to go horseback riding with you and I would be ecstatic to come to your island.   I doubt however, that I would be willing to join an actual mafia with you, but one can never tell.

2. Your status update/tweet is not your diary!  There are certain things about your life that all of your social media friends simply do not need to know.  There are things that should be kept personal and private.  Your social media outlets are also not venting sessions with your therapist!  We also do not need to know if the doctor lanced your boil or if your boss is still a major jerk, you told us yesterday and the day before and the day before that.  Basically you’re letting us know that a boil and your jerk of a boss are more interesting than you.  Let’s keep it classy, people!

3. “If you love Jesus re-post this picture.”  One like equals respect, one share equals love!”  “Re-post this if you love your country!”  “Bill Gates is giving away $1M – like this to be entered in the drawing.” Seriously people, I mean, seriously, enough with this already.  I actually saw one of these the other day that said, “Like & repost if you love Jesus, keep scrolling if you love Satan.”  ARE YOU KIDDING ME, C’MON!  Yes, I kept scrolling and guess what, I love Jesus and He loves me.  Last time I checked His love is not contingent on what we do for Him, which most definitely includes reposting a picture to social media.

4. Let’s all stop living life through social media.  It’s there to enhance our lives not overtake them!  If you’re at the gym having a great workout, enjoy the workout but it will still “count” even if you do not post about it.  If you’re having a great meal, enjoy every last savory bite, but we really do not need to see an image of your casserole.  Your baby is adorable and I commented that in the last 97 images that you posted of them, but enjoy the time with your child and put the camera down once in a while plus your baby is filling up my news feed!

5. It is not necessary to like/comment on everything.  For example “I lost my job today.” – probably shouldn’t hit like on that one!

6. I do not want to have to study and decipher your status update/tweet.  If you’re going to post make it easy for us to understand.  Example: “I’ve been waiting and waiting and still nothing guess I’ll keep moving and take what I’ve learned.”  WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?  I’m glad you learned something from this, because I haven’t got a clue!  Or, when someone ends a status update/tweet with “…you know who you are.”  I don’t know – is it me, is it someone else, help me please!

7. There is no need to let everyone know that you are deleting people from your friends list or followers.  Example status/tweet “Cleaning out my friends list, click like if you want to make the cut.” or “It’s time to purge some people from here.” or “I’ve just cleared out my friends list, so if you’re reading this, you made the cut.”  Made the cut??  Is your friends list a team now, and if so what are we playing?  Are you going to post a list of the team in the locker room?  If you feel the need to clear people out of your friends list or followers, then JUST DO IT ALREADY and quit acting like we’re all on the edge of our seats, biting our nails wondering if we made your team.

8. There’s virtually no accountability on social media.  Social media allows us to post things and say things but these things are never said/posted face to face.  However, we must all remember that they are still our words and actions that we are putting out there for the whole world to see.  If you wouldn’t blow up at someone in person, why do it on Twitter?  If you wouldn’t walk around all of your 1,200 friends (parents, pastor, old lady Sunday school teacher, your kids, your kids friends) in a bikini, why post it on Facebook?  Everything that we are putting on social media is seen by the world (your boss, your parents, your kids, your friends, your pastor, etc.) we need to watch our words and actions and have some accountability to our selves.

9.  Nobody likes a stalker, just keeping it real, people!

What do you love or what drives you crazy about social media?