As I am going through the week and using social media (more than I normally ever would, but sparingly compared to most), I am noticing a couple of things that I personally struggle with as a social media user. The first is that rather than a way to connect, I often feel as though it is an interruption. I am in Montreal this weekend just to visit. It is a place I have never been, but always wanted to check out. As I am walking around experiencing the city, I am getting notifications on my phone from twitter, Instagram, and Facebook continuously. I feel like I have to look. Then I think about posting on Instagram, and I have to stop what I'm doing ,arrange the photo, write a caption, etc. I know many, many people love doing this, but to me I feel it interrupts the flow of my daily activity. I wonder if anyone else experiences this?
The second issue that I encounter is that I worry about putting my photos on social media because of user agreements and fair-use issues. Not that I am some great photographer, or anyone important, but the language of twitter, Facebook, and Instagram user agreements that allows them royalty-free use of any images their users post is problematic to me. Also, fair-use laws are vague, and it is possible for someone to use part of an image I post without infringing on my copyright. Does anyone else worry about these issues?
Sorry that you are struggling with this, but I am sure it will get better as you learn and continue the use.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend turning off all notifications on your cell phone apps for these social media accounts and only checking them when you want so that you are in control. I ended up doing this and it is so helpful!
Next, if you truly want to post, it does take some time at first to get used to it, but after some time you will get faster. I used to always stump myself on what to say. Now, I prefer Instagram stories because I can take a quick pic or video and post instantly. I may or may not add captions, but I would recommend doing that only after you get comfortable. An Instagram story is different than a post on your page. I am happy to share more if interested. It is rather quite addicting on vacations to for me because I can allow my followers (close friends and family) to feel as if they are with me on my journey and they usually really enjoy it.
Instagram stories only displays your picture/video for 24 hours so this may help you get comfortable with things staying out there and following you. Although I am sure they still do in the background, but not readily available as a post is. Hope this helps a bit.
Rebecca - I sometimes can feel a little overwhelmed, but I second Kari that maybe what you should turn off are push notifications to your cell phone. You can still login your device voluntarily and see that you had notifications by looking at the app, but just turn off the part that sends you an alert to your phone each time it happens. It can allow you to feel less overwhelmed and just participate when you want to - as opposed to it being an interruption.
ReplyDeleteI do often worry about copyright infringement of users, especially on Facebook who just post images from other sources - that are not their own and don't give them credit. It seems to be and under-looked area right now on social media - unless the person whose work was infringed makes a scene about it.
Thank you, Kari and Sila! I think I will turn off the notifications, since I do find that I get a lot of them and it is a distraction. Maybe I will try to use Instagram stories, as well. That sounds like a cool feature!
ReplyDeleteRebecca, I do not use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on my mobile phone! I tend to use them on my laptop computer. I may feel overloaded when I use them on my mobile phone! Recently, I started to see my dreams in the form of Twitter news. :-) And I remember nothing from my dreams, just confusing. I think I used Twitter a lot recently but I think I love Twitter more than Instagram and Facebook. I am still exploring!
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