Are you proud of what you create?
I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a Facebook account. The truth is, I don't really use it that much, and I have been saying for quite some time I think the world was a much better place before it existed. That doesn't mean I think it is the bane of all existence like some folks and government officials would like you to believe.
There was a time many years ago when people kept their opinions to themselves.
Can you believe that? I know, it's hard. I'll give you a couple seconds to let that settle in.
You good?
It doesn't mean that people didn't have the same opinions they do today, it just means that they didn't feel necessary or enabled to share them in a public forum like they do now. Were you wronged? Put it on Facebook, surely there is someone who will share your rage and validate your feelings.
I'll be the first to admit I have several friends muted on Facebook. I haven't taken the step of blocking them entirely, but I don't need to see all the mindless drivel they regurgitate on their feed either.
I've been honest and told a couple of them that I have muted them and I have explained my reasons. Then there are others who I don't feel the need to let them know that I don't care what they have to think or say.
It really is a mob mentality in some respects and as you know, mobs tend to grow. They get bigger and they get more brazen and violent.
These days when I do use Facebook, it is mostly for the communities that I have joined which I touched on in this post.
I just wanted to lay some groundwork before I tell the next part of my story...
The other day, one of my friends on Facebook went on a very specific, explicit, and profanity laden rant about a topic I will not mention here. It wasn't anything controversial or taboo, but it was a bit offensive and my wife and I were both shocked to see him so brazenly put it out in public.
It kind of came out of left field too. That is to say, he was upset about a certain set of circumstances that had happened to him, but to put it all out there in public like that was slightly out of character.
It got me thinking though... Unless you are some kind of "influencer", you know who you are friends with on a lot of these platforms. In his case, those friends include my wife and I, his daughter, his mother, his father, his mother in law, his father in law... you get the idea.
That's when the idea for this post really started to take shape for me.
Are you proud of what you create?
Sure, going on that rant might feel good at the time, but as authors and content creators I think we need to consider who our words will impact and the weight they can have. I admit, throwing a post up on Facebook doesn't necessarily make you a content creator, but you are still putting something out there in the world for the public to see.
At the very least, your friends and family are probably going to see it.
Continuing the story, I noticed a couple of days later that he had taken the post down. I don't know how quickly he did it and I don't know if his conscience (or maybe his wife) prompted him to do it, but it was gone.
The problem is, for me, the damage was done. I'm still going to be friends with this guy, and I will still hang out with him, but I don't know if I will ever be able to look at him the same way again. I think we can all agree words have an impact and his were like a hammer blow to my heart.
That's the best way I can explain it.
Reading his words that day hurt my heart.
Have you ever felt that?
Like I said, it was in that moment I realized, I need to be better, I need to do better, and I need to ensure the integrity of what I create on other social media platforms, but mostly on Hive. You may have noticed, I try to keep my Hive posts as clean as possible. My parents might not appreciate the fact that I sometimes post about gambling or whiskey, but overall, I am proud of what I create here.
My niece or nephews could stumble upon my blog one day and I wouldn't be embarrassed or ashamed in the least at what they might read here. In fact, I hope they would be just as proud as I am at what I have created.
I know there is a chance Hive might not be around forever, and I know right now our active user base is pretty low.
Despite that, I still want to put out the best content I can. Every weekday morning I sit at my keyboard and I do my best to create something that I can be proud of.
Isn't that what we should all strive for?
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
I've not been on the book for a long time (10 yrs plus?) and maybe even then sporadicaly. I can only then say that I am happy with what I produce on Hive and am happy that I take the time to make some effort with my posts and try to produce some interesting content.
I do think that sometimes things can get on your mind and it might seem like a good idea to have a rant on social media, but most times this probably is not a good idea. I am glad that I try to stay positive, even if there are some negative things going on around us.
Yeah, I am kind of the same way to be honest about the whole rant thing. I have been slowly learning to give myself a good half hour before I reply to certain emails these days. It's just better for everyone when I do that! :)
Regretfully, there are some stuff from my past I wish I would have never posted on FB or Hive from a time when I was being a real butthead while going through some mental challenges. I lost some friends, and close family over it, and I own all of it. Many forgave me though and for that I am grateful. I left social media for a while completely when recovering and going through therapy. Deleted most accounts. It was the best thing I could have done for my mental health at the time. Just recently here I stepped back to evaluate how much and what I am doing here with Hive and with offline social functions and organizations. Anyway, I am dragging on too much. Good post, glad it is one of the first ones I came across as I return to engaging this week.
Thanks, I appreciate that. I don't think I have ever posted anything I regret, but I am old enough to know that I said many things I regret when I was younger. Either out of ignorance or the wrong head space at the time. Being able to acknowledge that and grow from it is one of the best gifts we can give ourselves.
Buena opinión ☺️
Thank you.
I'm still on FB but not very active, and it's only because a lot of my friends and family are on it. I have unfriend some in recent years due to differences in political opinion and moral values which even the 20+ year friendship doesn't make any difference, and now the people left are basically my 'real' friends from far away that I want to keep in touch with.
Yeah, I am kind of the same way. I have a few friends who I know we aren't ever going to agree politically, but I keep them around and we just respectfully avoid that topic when we talk.
Cada quien es constructor de sus sueños, cada quien es arquitecto de su vida, simplemnete debemos creer en nosotros!!!!
good personality
Even if you just send an email to one person, or write a journal and leave it for future generations, you are putting thoughts (content) out there in the world. Those words can have an effect, so we should be careful :)
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Thanks, I appreciate that! Yeah, that is a good point about emails. As I said in another comment, I struggle with those. Sometimes my heart and my fingers get ahead of my brain. I need to be better at letting myself cool down before replying to some of them.
Words are words, regardless of how many people read them. It never hurts to err on the side of caution...
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For sure!
Throwing something up on FB whilst it might not be a post, can be way more damaging than it ever could on hive.
The amount of misinformation and tripe that you see,and that can go viral is jawdropping.
It is good point, I often don't publish what I have drafted, as I am not sufficiently happy with it to post.
That is a good point. There is a difference, but you still have to live with yourself and the consequences either way! There is a lot of crap out there!
Hehe that is very true!
I have a FB account, but I rarely use it. Even though I like FB Groups, that isn't enough to lure me there very often. I agree it leads to mob behavior. Maybe that is even more evident on Twitter because of the mobs that attack people over there for any perceived wrongs. It could be a social media problem, because I've seen that behavior on Reddit too. I gave up trying to mute people because the problem is so widespread I'd end up muting everyone. So I just don't use the service.
Love what you wrote. We should all keep the ranting in the virtual pubs (like the Mancave) or the real ones, and keep it out of what we post. It is always a good idea to think about who might be reading your posts.
Yeah, that last part is what really got me about it. He has a kid that is an adult, but he also has younger kids and my first thought was they might read this one day.
Facebook is a place to gossip more than anything else, many people use that network just to give meaningless words with a sarcastic tone. I really prefer to create here, in fact I have stopped sharing for a while now over there.
I hope that person has words of apology, as it leaves a lot to think about their behavior.
Greetings.
I don't think the person actually knows how much it upset me. I thought about posting back and letting them know on FB, but that really just perpetuates all the stuff that happens there.
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I'm on FB, but only use it when I need to. Luckily most of my friends don't post much, but FB seem to think they should fill my feed with 'suggested' content anyway. I hate that and it puts me off using it. I don't really consider them to be 'evil', just a company trying to maximise revenue by keeping people on their site. It's not working with me, but I will exploit the features they have that I need.
I have always been wary of what I post as it could be there forever. I am careful of what personal information goes online as it could be mis-used. That's especially true if talking about anyone else.
We have seen plenty of people go on rants here that get them into trouble. Don't post when angry.
Great advice! I probably post more personal stuff than I should, but I try to do it with a modicum of respect and awareness about what I am putting out there. The suggested content is horrible. One of the most annoying things Facebook has done in the past five years.
Some of the suggestions may be relevant to my interests, but I want to choose what I see. I tell them to hide most of it, but they just find more. It's a bottomless pit.
I think Hive could replace a lot of what FB does for public groups and accounts, but we cannot do the private content side as things stand. That would need fundamental changes to the infrastructure.
Yeah, that is a good point about the private content. I hadn't really thought of that. It makes sense though. I see a lot of interesting stuff on Facebook, but I know some of it is fraud too and I don't think they do a great job of vetting that stuff.
I have a Facebook account but I don't really get to use it because moat things that people post are not very reasonable and they support negativity
We see so many negative things online these days and that is why I don't even use it again
There are some positive things out there, you just need to know where to find them. I understand your thinking though. It's probably a pretty healthy attitude to have.
I'm sorry this happened to you, it's not a good feeling. It's a sort of deep sadness. This has happened to me and you describe how it feels very accurately. Social media has a way of making peoples' behavior and opinions more and more extreme. Since 2020 I've seen, otherwise, rock solid trusted friends turned into extremists who just can't tolerate anyone who disagrees with what they believe. The intolerance is the hard part for me. I don't begrudge people's beliefs (as long as they aren't harming others) but I have a hard time accepting the intolerance. Sometimes I wish we could go back to a point where there's just some things (politics/religion/etc.) that aren't discussed so freely on social media.
It's okay, this actually isn't the first time we have seen behavior of this sort, so it wasn't altogether surprising. This particular topic just hit kind of close to home for my wife and I. I actually don't disagree with his initial frustration, but his anger and tantrum was directed in the completely wrong direction. I know it doesn't help that I am leaving out so much context, but I hope you can still follow along. In the grand scheme of things, this wasn't the most offensive thing I have seen him do, but it just hit kind of close to home. Ultimately, I am glad he took the post down.
We just had a Hive Learners Prompt about the pros and cons of civilization. What I wrote about the bad results of civilisation is in line with what you insightfully wrote.
Because one can share anything in social media, they vent all the rubbish they have inside them.
I choose to always create what I and my generation will be proud of.
Thank you for such an awesome article.
No problem. That sounds like it was a really cool prompt. I bet it generated a lot of really good responses.
Oh absolutely, it did. Thank you 😊
I also have a Facebook account but I use it very less now about five years ago I probably wasted most of my precious time on Facebook.But ever since I stepped into the crypto market, I've started to find things like using Facebook to be pointless.As soon as I came to the blogging website, I felt that my words have value, if I write my words here, I get some Rewords in return.
Got busy playing Bejeweled huh? I think we've all been there :) Welcome to Hive. It's really an awesome place to be.
I completely agree that as "creators" and "authors" (not sure if I can call myself one yet), we bear a responsibility for the words we put out into the world, regardless of the platforms we use. It's easy to forget the reach and impact of our words, especially when venting frustrations in the heat of the moment.
But I can say that I'm proud of my journey in Hive so far and is enjoying myself thoroughly with this blogging experience 😊
That's great. As long as you can look yourself in the mirror I guess that is all that really matters. Perhaps my friend can and that is good for him. I dunno. I've really come to enjoy my time here on Hive. It's a bit therapeutic for me.
Yeah I really didn't think that I wouldn't be enjoying it as much as I am right now.
Never really a fan of writing journals or blog, since I hated essay writings back in school! But yeah so far its been a rather therapeutic journey for me 😁
Btw thanks for giving me a Follow as well, means a lot to me 😊
I was the same way back in school. I liked doing the research, but hated writing the papers.
Yeah so it is actually quite surprising that I'm enjoying this whole blogging experience so far! 😅
$WINE
Luckily for me I don't really have any family or friends, so my Facebook feed is almost entirely groups I've chosen to my tastes: optical illusions, choir directing, music theory teachers, guitar group, puzzle guy (Chris Ramsay) and such.
I think once people learn to cater their social media not to their immediate emotions but to their passions and hobbies, it actually can make the world a better place. Maybe not twitter/tiktok, but Facebook is actually set up pretty well to work positively for humans.
It's just that it also makes it too easy to just be an internet troll, a scammer, a criminal, and more.
I'm grateful I figured it out long ago. I don't use twitter or tiktok, I just have Facebook as described, and Hive. Nothing more needed!
That's an interesting philosophy. I definitely can see the benefits of FB which is why I haven't gotten rid of it all together. It's funny how hardly anyone uses it for what it was originally used for these days. It has evolved quite a bit.
I think my idea of lucky and your idea of lucky might be a little different.
Haha don't get me wrong I wish my family wasn't so messed up but... gotta work with the cards you've been dealt eh? So I find the bright sides best I can =)
Okay, I understand!
The only use for fb for me right now is mostly for its messenger app to communicate with close friends and family. Here in the Philippines so few influencers and content creators really put out anything of value. Most are just attention seeking dance videos or if not pranks. I immediately block those pages when it rolls on my feed. Id rather watch carpet cleaning asmr videos all day long. Hahaha.
I'm sorry to say it's not jut the Philippines. It's that way pretty much everywhere. So much content and so little value!
Honestly, it's a shame how people act on FB nowadays. I have seriously felt ashamed for others acting this way many times and I've often felt something boil inside when reading how offending people can be on FB.
The worst period was when we went into lockdowns the first pandemic wave and apparently many people had nothing better to do than read and write on FB. I was appalled by what I read and ashamed for mankind that we now turned into species who had absolutely no respect left for others. If anyone were to post a question about something or put something up for sale as they had no other choice but to leave the country to go back home due to loss of work or something, they would go nuts in the comment section.
The comments had nothing to do with the question and I can only imagine how these people writing the posts must have felt when I was already getting worked up reading it and it was not even my post. This behaviour didn't seem to stop afterwards.
I only used FB for my daughters kindergarten at the time, it was how they informed the parents about events etc. After that I abandoned the account and I made a new one only for the rescue organization of cats here when I started to look for a kitten and later foster kittens.. No way I'm going down that rabbit hole called FB again.
I can see how your feelings about that friend may have changed inside, you can never unread what you read. At least he took it down, let's hope it was because he felt he should not that he was forced to do so, lol.
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Yeah, that is a good point. I hope as well that he realized he crossed a line and not just that his wife asked him to take it down. The comments section on Yahoo has been bad for a while with people saying all kinds of things they wouldn't say in person. Now that has started to seep into social media as well over the past three or four years.
Yes as if people suddenly had nothing better to do. But I also blame the lack of sunlight and lack of vitamins maybe because you know, sitting inside probably caused many to lack vitamin D and other things making their mood swing into depression etc..
I personally try to scroll further when I read that type of stuff to not let it get to me :) But sometimes I can't resist reading and then I feel stupid for wasting my time reading what the keyboard warriors had to say, lol.
Have a good weekend!
The comments are the only reason I go to Yahoo a lot of times. I am not sure why because I usually end up being depressed and sad for the future of humanity after I read them. It's funny be cause during Covid I think I spent more time outside than I did inside. I guess I was one of the exceptions.
I always said I'd go for groceries so that I had some time outside. I didn't mind wandering on the streets while they were close to being empty, or going in the subway without it being overcrowded and hardly seat to find, lol.
It was also quite strange to see normally overcrowded streets being totally empty, without another soul in the area. We sadly didn't live near a park the first wave, so I really missed long walks in a green area. It made me realize that I never wanted to experience such a lockdown in the middle of a big city again, at least now we have the sea downhill, and more nature around us (even though it's very dry here).
My wife and I drove down to the park and went for a walk pretty much every morning when we were working from home. Then when summer hit we continued to go camping and do the things we would normally do as long as it wasn't in a confined space.
I would be proud too
Your reflection on the impact of words in the age of social media is thought-provoking. It's true that the ease of sharing thoughts and opinions online has its benefits, but it also comes with responsibilities.
Your commitment to creating content you can be proud of, not just for yourself but for potential readers, is commendable. In a world where online interactions can sometimes lack empathy and consideration, your post serves as a reminder of the importance of mindful communication and content creation.
Sorry friend, you need to do better than that.
Count me in ^^ @subidu