Hi everyone! I hope you’re well ❤️ What are you up to today? I’m up to this! 😂 Let’s talk about social media: the good, the bad and a few in-between thoughts that tie the two together. Social media is a huge aspect of many people’s lives these days. It’s marketed as this great thing but with all seemingly “great” things there is often a shred of darkness lurking in the corner *everybody looks to the corner of the room and is now REALLY paranoid* 😂. Let’s start with a pro and then a con, alternating between the two like a rhythmic dance 😵💃:
Pro • It has the power to connect you with like-minded individuals whom you wouldn’t normally get the chance to meet 🤝 I’ve met so many wonderful people through blogging (blogging is social media right? 😂) and I wouldn’t change this journey for the world!
Con • People can pretend to be someone they’re not: Or even if you’re not lying some will think that you are and say that stuff didn’t happen if there’s no photo to prove it. You could say that you had cornflakes for breakfast this morning and they’d be like “pictures or it didn’t happen” 🤔📸😂
Pro • You can express yourself + share your viewpoint on things: Love books? Talk about it! Are you a budding artist? Put your creations out there! The world is your oyster and social media can be a great place to feed into our capabilities/hobbies 😍
Con • Keyboard warriors are on the loose, looking to create drama out of thin air: I once wrote a post on how to cope with online hate and shared my thoughts on this 💪
Pro • It’s a hub for news as soon as it is released keeping you up to tabs on the world we live in 📰: Unless someone tells me about something, social media is often where I’ll find out 😂
Con • Rumours can spread like wildfire 🔥 an idea can be taken and just run out of control.
Pro • The community can be super inspiring + motivational ✨: It’s an undescribable feeling but inspiration can come in all forms and when you see someone doing well and living their best life perhaps going on an adventure (as well as sharing about difficult times) it can really inspire and help you to get through your day knowing you’re not alone and that there is a whole world out there waiting to be seen! 🌍
Con • Comparison seeps into the fold and makes you question your own ability: If said it before and I’ll say it again “comparison tis the thief of joy” 🙌😂 Check out the worst habits of a blogger to get more info on this bad boy☝️
Pro • You can keep up to date with what is going on in people’s lives: I love seeing what people are up to as I’m a nosy bean 😊
Con • Fear of missing out (I wasn’t in the mood for an abbreviation 😂) and you can feel like others have a more interesting life than you (kinda like comparison but what are ya gonna do? 😂).
Pro • It’s a place where you can enhance a hobby and learn more about the things you love to do 🎨 (at the moment I can’t stop looking up photos of succulents 🌵 because even though I killed my last one 🙄 I’ve been keeping an eye on a huge plant we keep in our kitchen so I feel like I’ve grown to the extent that a future life will have a better chance in my care…or at least I hope so! 😂)
Con • There is a thin line before it starts to become addictive and you can just mindlessly scroll for what feels like days 📆 I used to mindlessly scroll for a while each day and somewhere down the line I got bored with it so I don’t really dedicate time to doing that anymore. Every now and then I’ll go on Instagram and check out stories or like posts but I don’t gravitate towards it at this moment in time. All in all I personally go in and out of phases with social media, the only constant in my life is this blog ✨
Pro • You can advertise your blog and/or business: I used to love Twitter and now I only advertise posts there, I went through a short time when I was obsessed with Instagram and now I’ve found a way of using it more for myself than for what I show as well as the odd story or post (it’s an ever-changing spiral 💫😂).
Con • Sometimes people can expect you to be on their 24/7 waiting at their beck and call when that’s not possible! There is a life away from the screen that I for one find way more intriguing (….. because I can use it for blogging inspiration later on when I’m back on the screen 😏😂).
Pro • It can be an outlet when you’re feeling down as well as when you’re on cloud 9 ☁️: I blog through loads of different emotions and find that it helps to get some things out there whether they be good or bad.
Con • People often overshare: which can lead to dangerous consequences when strangers know more about you than you can even remember putting out there 😦
Pro • If people don’t like what they see then they can unfollow you, simple as 🤷 (I think this is a pro because it means you can continue to just be yourself and do what you want to do 💫).
Con • It can become overwhelming. (I’ve saved my longest point until the very end 😂): It was very overwhelming back when isolation started and I turned to social media to see what was going on in the outside world but all talk was about the virus and there was an element of fearmongering going on. I know it’s possible to switch of from social media but once you see certain headlines there’s no switching of your mind sometimes 🗯️.
To an extent I understood it because it’s important that people know how serious Covid-19 is but at the time it was just too much as it all seemed to come out of nowhere….now it’s the norm. It’s really strange but I can’t even put myself in that hectic headspace anymore because the loudness of it seemed to just be at the beginning when no one really knew what was going to happen.
Now there is a plan and guidelines to follow so my mind can somewhat deal with it to an extent (what gets me scared is how I went out the other day and saw that nobody was social distancing…I haven’t actually been out of the car yet but I’m planning on it which is a step up from how I initially thought I’d never even want to leave the house again so comme ci, comme ça 😌 I’ll take what I can get from myself in these trying times 😂).
On that note, Thank YOU for reading! 😉 Can you think of anymore pros or cons of social media that should have made the list? Does the good outweigh the bad or vice versa? Let me know in the comments below! I hope you enjoyed this post and that you have a wonderful day ✨💕
Elsie LMC 
These are all so true! But if I never started blogging I wouldn’t of met some wonderufl people so I definitely don’t regret blogging!!
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Thank you! 😄 Yeah I’ve never regretted blogging or even social media for that matter despite the many cons as the pros by far outweigh that in my opinion (as that for me is easy to take time away from 😂). Thanks for reading! 💕
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What a great post Elsie x…Social media…def has its good and bad for sure. You can post your thoughts but then the keyboard warriors come out. Things are taken out of context, people get offended. I have a saying not mine but still “Scroll on by, if you dont like what that person is saying move on”…I have been in Facebook groups where if you dont like what the admin says and you disagree you are made fun of etc in front of everyone in that group. Then you have the sheep or the herd quality…they dont agree with that person but dont want to look bad so they “agree ” with the person who is rude to you. I have been on the end of keyboard warriors…
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Thank you!! That’s a great saying to keep in mind. People were making fun of a person in a group on Facebook so my sister reported and it was set so that everyone could see who had reported so they all came after her, was horrible and unnecessary 😧 It’s like people don’t like being called out for their behavior and feel like there are spaces to speak out with even the most mean of thoughts. I’m sorry to hear that you have been on the receiving end of that hatred, it’s not nice at all. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment 💕💕
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I agree that there are pros and cons to using social media. I can speak as someone who was obsessed with social media at one point, who used FB for a decade. A decade! 😦 My mental health is fragile, so it eventually got to a point where I needed to prioritize my life and my well-being. No matter what I did to unfollow, mute, block people etc. my mental health did not improve. 😕 It only got better AFTER I quit social media. It seems a little counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? You would think quitting social media (FB, IG, twitter, snapchat etc.) would make me feel worse, but it had the opposite effect.
I plan to return to social media in 2021 only after I accomplish some big goals of mine, but idk if I will be returning for sure… honestly, I am in no hurry to open Pandora’s Box. I feel like social media makes it too easy to get swept into other people’s lives (hey, we’re curious creatures) but instead, we should be focusing on improving our own lives. 🧘♀️🌱
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I’m happy to hear that you found and did what was best for you 🙌 and that last part is so true! It really is more so for seeing what other people are up to than it is to share our own lives and that can mean we’re using up so much time getting lost in something that hasn’t got anything to do with us 😕 Best of luck with those big goals you speak of! ✨ Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment 💕
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Great post! I can really relate (not sure if that’s the best way to phrase it😂) to your point that ‘People often overshare’; occasionally I notice something like an email address in a screenshot on someone’s story, which scares me because it proves oversharing is so easy. But more often I see people ‘overshare’ in a different way: I don’t want to know about every last detail of someone’s day!😂 Take care💖
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Thank you!! Haha 😂 Ahhh that’s so worrying that people may not notice what they are sharing with the world and potentially the wrong people 😦 Yeah same, It’s more interesting if there’s an air of mystery and then you’ll want to keep coming back to their blog/social platform to learn more 💫 Thanks, you too! 💕
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This was a great read to think about the pros and cons of social media! I definitely have days where I think “do I really need social media” and of course as a blogger it is important to improve and grow your blog. Plus I love connecting with other people and I wish I could just meet all the bloggers. But there are many cons too haha. great read thank you xxxx
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Thank you!! Yeah same, I can go ages without it (only using to advertise through a story) and feel content in that and then sometimes I’ll feel in the mood for it, I think that’s my happy medium at the moment 😂 Ahh thanks! I appreciate that and I’m glad you enjoyed the post (it’s been in my drafts folder for months so there was a glitch in uploading it but am happy it made it through! 🙌😂)💕Xx
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