image via Sometimes Sweet

Although I mostly lurk on her blog, Danielle over at Sometimes Sweet is one of my favourite Mommy bloggers and her little family is just too cute for words. Every Sunday she posts a journaling prompt, and this week I’ve decided to take part. Today, we’re talking about social media. Here’s the prompt to help get our brains cranking:

Do you use social media in your daily life? Do you think it adds to your relationships with others, or takes away from them? And furthermore, do you think social media adds more positive or negative to your life? Write about your relationship with social media, and talk a bit about how you got started, and what role it plays in your world.

I’m pretty sure that at least 95% of the world today uses social media in some way, shape or form in today’s world. It’s hard not to go along throughout your day without hearing someone say, “Check us out on Facebook,” or “Tweet us your opinion!” I’m totally guilty of spending far too much time browsing profiles and groups on Facebook, reading tweets out loud to my husband, and sharing photos of what I had for breakfast/lunch/dinner/whenever on Instagram. I may not post something every day on every social media outlet, but I’m definitely on there.

As a result, far too often I find myself referring to people I’ve never met in real life – be it mentioning a tweet I read, a funny picture I seen on Instagram, or a comment on a Facebook page. I think that while social media has brought a lot more awareness to the world – we now find out about different events and news WAY faster than we ever have – it has taken away from our relationship with others. We’ve become so quick to “friend” people online and give them the inside scoop on what’s going on in our lives. I find that there’s now less to talk about when you actually meet in person – IF you meet in person. Why meet for coffee to catch up if you’ve already read every detail about so-and-so’s house renovation, new baby woes, or seen pictures of their big trip to Costa Rica?

All this being said, I think social media has definitely impacted my life in a more positive way. I think way more about what I write online and what kinds of information I put out there for the world to read. I’m more conscience of the individuals in my online circles and who I’d like to keep as acquaintances, and who I’d love to actually have that cup of coffee with despite creeping through their Facebook statuses. And of course, it definitely helps me to stay connected with family and friends who I don’t see on a regular basis.

Would I say I’m addicted to social media? Yeah, maybe just a little. But I’ve got to say that as an introvert, it has helped me come out of my shell just a little bit. It’s not that I see the internet as a place to be whoever I want to be; it’s just the place where the voice in my head is actually brave enough to shout its thoughts from the rooftops.