Social Media Stripes

When we become active on social media we automatically open ourselves up to criticism, trolls, the self-righteous, over-opinionated numpties and many other people who think they have a given right to make us feel generally stupid. I've spent six years as a blogger, about three years as a tweeter and about the same as a Facebook user, and on each of these social media platforms I have been at the wrath of people's tongues. I haven't got a particularly thick skin and that is perhaps my downfall, so I therefore let certain comments get to me. But being so active on social media allows me to see the incredible amount of 'policing' that goes on. The beauty of interacting on social media such as Twitter and Facebook is you can unfollow and unfriend, though I don't often do it on Facebook because the majority of my 'friends' on there are people I actually like and interact with regularly. Twitter however, is a different kettle of fish.

If there are rules on social media then you can keep them. I'm not one to break rules, as a rule, but I'm also not one that appreciates being treated like an idiot. People who don't know you on Twitter can of course say anything they like to you; what does it matter if they don't know you? The difference is, I follow people on Twitter whom I don't know but I'd never tell them how to tweet, what to tweet, that their tweet was 'rude'. I'm sick of sitting in a corner and saying nowt. I'm trying bloody hard to use social media, taking advantage of it just like most other people do, and enjoying the benefits it brings. And it has brought me benefits, on a massive scale. I've made friends, made sales and built up my confidence as a person and that is probably why I'm writing this blog post. Maybe one day I would have just said, 'oh dear, I've upset someone', whereas now I say, 'oh, doooo fuck off' before I hit the block button.

Seriously, why do some people think it's okay to tell others how to blog, how to tweet, how to post on Facebook? Why do people think it's okay to tell us we're rude when they have no idea who we are or why we said what we did? I'm sure there are many reasons why people feel they have a divine right to dictate to others but me personally, well I'm sick of it. My blog. My Twitter account. My Facebook page. I don't mean to be rude, really I don't, but reign yourself in and remember there is no such thing as social media police.