How do you use social media?
How do you use social media?
I use social media mostly to keep up with people.
Facebook helps me know what friends are doing, where they have been, what their family is up to, and what seems to be filling their lives at the moment. I like that. I enjoy seeing the shape of people’s days. My wife is much better at posting than I am. She keeps everyone informed about what we are doing. People especially love her photos of our favourite beach in its many moods, and her steady record of cafes and restaurants worth trying. She could easily have been a food critic.
But Facebook has changed. It is getting harder to find real people there. More and more of it feels filled with ideological nonsense. People should have convictions. But so much of what appears online is sensational, distorted, and often untrue. It is not serious thought. It is noise dressed up as importance.
I use LinkedIn differently. That is where I keep up with colleagues and former students. There is something deeply satisfying about seeing people do well, finding their place, growing into themselves, and doing work that matters. I genuinely enjoy seeing where life has taken them.
X is different again. It can be brutal, but it can also be honest. If you want to know what people are saying before it has been tidied up for polite consumption, it can be a useful place to look. At its best, it says the quiet part out loud. At its worst, it is exactly as unpleasant as that sounds.
I do not use Instagram. Our students live there, and I am happy to leave that space to them. Not every room needs me in it.
So I do use social media, but lightly. I could use it more than I do, but I would rather give my time to other things. More and more, I find myself hungering for real people rather than online versions of them. That, in the end, is the limit of social media. It can keep you updated. It can help keep you connected. But it cannot substitute for the texture of an actual life, honestly lived.
The Afterword 
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