Social Media - the good, the bad and the ugly

I totally missed blogging yesterday. I decided to have a day away from my laptop, but I also forgot as well!

Which brings me to social media and mobile phones. I am probably one of a small minority who, while I have a smart phone, still uses pay-as-you-go. There are two reasons for this, i) I am stingy, ii) I'm afraid I'll end up using it to the extent I see other do which actually drives me mad at times. My son says 'Mum, you won't. You'll use it for maps and music.' Ah, yes, that would be the start. That would be my intended use, but then I'd find I'd edge over to Facebook, Twitter and my emails, check and re-check in case I'm missing something (which I never am!).

I was slow to get into social media. I put it off as long as possible, and then a friend said her photos were on Facebook and the only way I could see them was to join. Actually, that's not strictly true because you can post a link to someone's email (as I later found out). Anyhow, that's what I did. Once I was on there I had no idea what to do, what to post. Now I'm on there everyday and dip in and out. I admit it, I'm addicted and I hate the fact that I am. Sometimes I decided to have a week away from it and when I go back I realise I have missed nothing at all. So why am I so obsessed with it?

I think it's something to do with approval. How many likes, how many comments. Social media can be very bad for you. I get caught up in something topical and feel the need to rant about it. I've learned to hold back now and in some cases have had to monitor what I read, because I found that some posts would make feel so tense. Once I chose to ignore and monitor I felt so much better.

I love the internet on the whole. It's useful for research and for interacting with others of a same mind, but it takes up a lot of my day if I let it. You see while I was not on my laptop yesterday I did check things out on my phone. Well, that's half way there, isn't it? Who am I trying to convince here?

However, I do still have my own rules. I never use my phone on a bus or train to make calls unless someone is meeting me at the other end and needs a time, or in the case of an emergency. I always carry a book to read.

I use my mobile for taking photos when on holiday and dive into social media in the evenings only and for a short time. I might use it for music if I'm on holiday on my own. Music is my stress-buster.

I never use my mobile while I am with people. Others do it to me and I think it's rude. Surely a text or email can wait (emergencies excepted, though surely they would ring).

So, while I toy with the idea of having a contract for my phone (yes, it would be very useful for maps because often I take photos off my laptop to use!), I'm afraid of falling into that bottomless pit of constantly checking social media while I'm out. It's a hard one. How the hell did we manage in the past? I can certainly remember the days when I was a child and we got our first telephone. We had what was called a 'party line', meaning we shared a line with our neighbours to save money. And we had telephone boxes. Now everything is immediate. Still, I do find others who are like me (my age and older, I must admit) and often have their mobiles switched off (my friends moan at me), or on silent, and my cousin, when we speak on the landline, always keeps her conversations short. I think perhaps she must have clock and a set time to keep within, a bit like my mum when I used to make calls from home shouting 'You've been on there ten minutes already.' Ah those were the days!

So, how about you? Are you a constant user? Do you have days away from your laptop/social media? Or do you love it and think, what the hell are you on about woman? Do communicate. I'll be checking!