Now possibly more than ever social media has become a place to share negativity and hate. Even people you may know fairly well will say much more online than they ever would out loud in person. Since we check social media so often, mostly out of habit, it’s important that we use Facebook as a tool and create a place that we go and find posts and shares that are related to things we enjoy and even things that can help us in our personal and professional lives. Since Facebook responds to how we interact with people and posts so well and so quickly you can actually change most of what you see on social media within a day.
A lot of friends on Facebook are probably not actually your friends. It seems more of a nice gesture to keep someone as a friend even if you’re not actually close. These might be people you went to high school or college with, or worked together in the past but don’t keep in touch anymore. To keep the connection open but not see their posts anymore simply Unfollow them. Some of these people will constantly share funny meme’s that unfortunately aren’t actually funny. Or someone you know will be struggling in their own life and feel your news feed is a great place to express their dissatisfaction with anything and everything, over and over and over. It also probably doesn’t have be mentioned that there will always be political and personal belief debates flying around on this free piece of internet given to all, called a Profile.
An effective way to slow down the negative posts is to Unfollow. You can tap the down arrow on a post and choose to Unfollow someone completely. This option allows you to stay friends but not see the posts from this person. We have enough going on in our own lives that we try to fight off to keep ourselves happy and on the right path, we shouldn’t spend our precious time just reading about other people’s anger or hate. You could search for certain people that come to mind or scroll down your news feed and find posts that you realize are frustrating or could get you down and choose to Unfollow them. If you feel hesitant, remember it’s not permanent. You could go in tomorrow and start to follow them again. But it’s likely that you will feel relief from the burden these posts actually bring you. You may not even realize that they do.
Now let’s bring more of what you WANT to see when you’re spending your time purusing the internet.
Everyone has different interests or goals so you need to decide what you want your Facebook to be about. Mine? It’s mostily business related articles and local events, mixed with some photos of friends kids. I want to know what’s going on in my area, and I love that if I like and follow a page then I get notifications when they post and I get suggestions to events they post as well. To find these I searched for local businesses like our Community Main Street organization, both the local City pages – often just City of (XYZ), and the local Travel and Tourism pages are also great. Once you start liking Pages Facebook will even recommend more like them for you! Then there’s entrepreneurship and careers. I was amazed at how quickly I turned my Facebook from a soul sucking negative pity party into a resource for career guidance and inspiration! You are able to find bloggers, businesses, organizations, magazines, radio stations and television networks, anything business related. I started by following magazines that I liked to read like Entrepreneur and SUCCESS. Then I searched key words to see if I could find pages that were brand new to me. I searched words like Positive and Entrepreneur and found pages that were sharing articles daily covering these topics! The next day after I did this I felt so much lighter when I spent time on Facebook. When I open an article I am learning something and the articles are actually inspiring and interesting to me.
Now say you’re a stay at home and you want ideas for your littles and you’re thinking GIVE ME ALL THE MOMMY BLOGS. Facebook is where it’s at! Search for them in Facebook so when they put a new post up they all show up in your news feed in one place! A popular ‘franchies’ of blogs are the (insert city name) Mom’s Blog. That’s a great one to find that way you’re hearing from mom’s right in your area. Then Like and Follow businesses that offer kids activities like Museums, Rec Centers, Theaters, local sports teams, indoor inflatable or trampoline parks. You’ll be in the know and enjoying checking your newsfeed while stalling in the bathroom for an extra minute while yelling I’m going to the bathroom! Just a minute!
If you’re not much of a like-ER on Facebook try to give a like to articles and statues you enjoy. Your comments and likes on different types of posts, photos, videos, or statuses all make those types of stories more likely to show up in your feed.
If you’re scrolling through your newly designed news feed and come across an interesting article but you don’t have the time to actually read it, tap the down arrow and Save that article. When you have down time later go into your Saved posts and it’ll be waiting there!
Take the time to create a social place you want to be.
PS how Facebook uses our likes and posts and tags is the same way the universe uses your thoughts and what you talk about. The more you interact with someone online, Facebook tries to give you more of that with what you see in your news feed and suggested posts and advertisements. Miss Universe does the same thing. Like attracts like. In the real world and the virtual one.
