Behave yourself on social media

By Jamie Rieger
Long gone are the days when going onto your favourite social media site was a good way to unwind at the end of the day, a way to kill some time before heading off for dreamland.
These days, as we scroll down our pages, we are inundated with unwanted advertising (click at top right hand corner of the post and hit ‘hide’), a blathering of political nonsense coming at you from all sides, and as a result of the latter, nitpicking and bickering by folks who think only their opinion matters (or is the correct one).
My social media time is a time for me to clear my head, check in with family, see what my friends have been posting, and play the odd game here and there.
Of late, however, there is a lot less reading of some of the posts being shared (please people, check your sources before posting! Sheesh!), a lot more hitting of the ‘Hide’ button, and very minimal sharing of posts myself. Sometimes, I merely check in on family, then go straight to my games of choice and don’t bother looking to see what gobbledegook has been posted by people who I assume think that by sharing that garbage will change the opinions of others. It won’t. What it might do though, is spark a political arguement on social media for the whole world to see. I may have been guilty of this once or twice myself when I just couldn’t bite my tongue and my fingers started firing off a few opinions of my own.
It’s easy to get caught up in the barrage of opinionated verbage when you’re sitting at a home computer with nothing better to do.
What I have found is that my quiet time in the evening has turned into a lot more bother than it’s worth, especially in the past year or so.
So, I will still visit my favourite social media site, but only on special occasions (LOL) will voice my views and I will still check to see what my sisters and brothers are up to, whether my nephew has a new tinkering project on the go, and which friends are posting vacation photos. It’s all good. I’ll just try my  best to keep my opinions to myself.

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