Making social media less angry

I've been trying something new to help me be less angry on the internet and I wanted to share it with you too.
If you try it too, I'd love to hear what you think.

Alexis' links.
Free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BCSacorn
I hang out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexisbushnell/​
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaForHumans
Join the club to learn more about ethical and effective social media marketing: https://socialmediaforhumans.club/

Voice over by Hawke Wood: https://www.spotlight.com/3490-9081-8844

Support the show

Alexis' links.
I hang out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexisbushnell/​
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaForHumans
Join the club to learn more about ethical and effective social media marketing: https://socialmediaforhumans.club/

Voice over by Hawke Wood: https://www.spotlight.com/3490-9081-8844

Transcript

Hawke: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Social Media for  Humans, the podcast that empowers you to do social   differently. Your host, Alexis Bushnell, and her  guests discuss their experience of social media as   business owners users and ultimately humans. With  insights and advice to help you find an effective   and ethical strategy that works for you. Grab yourself a drink and join the conversation. 

Alexis: 0:21

Hi hello hi, I'm Alexis, my  pronouns are she her, this is another little tip   episode of the Social Media for Humans podcast.  Today I actually want to chat a little bit about   something I'm trying to make  social media a little bit less   negative and shouty and aggressive. Hang with me!  So I'm gonna speak from my experience, if this   resonates with you and you feel like you  see a little bit of yourself in this, hi!   I am somebody who embodies the "somebody's wrong  on the internet" meme. I really struggle to   see people post false information, misinformation,  have some seriously questionable hot takes   on social media. I am somebody who naturally  has a tendency to want to engage with that.   This might come as a surprise to some of you as so  much of my content is about not engaging with that   stuff, making social media more positive. This  has been a work in progress for me, it remains a   work in progress, I am not perfect. But it's also  partly why I'm so passionate about it is because   I am naturally that person. Like I am naturally  the person who will see the Tweet and go "here's   all the reasons you're wrong, here are the  receipts." I will be doing the searching   to find the evidence so that I can send it to  somebody. I'm that girl and I'm not proud of it.   So something I am trying at the moment is, I  actually have a thread in my free Facebook group,   there'll be a link in the show notes, and I've  put a little thread up in there which is the   "someone is wrong on the internet" thread. The  idea of this thread is that instead of replying   to the individual, to the post that I have  seen, that has enraged me and thus giving it   even more air time and showing it to even more  people and also just raising my blood pressure and   making me feel worse about the world and myself.  Instead of doing those things the idea is hop over   to that thread, maybe bookmarked it somewhere,  and you just say all the things you want to say   on that thread in a comment. The rules are nobody  is allowed to reply to you, nobody is allowed to   correct you, you just get it out of your system  on that thread and that's it that's it, that's   the end of it. But the other rule is that you are  not allowed to share what you're replying to. It   is about not promoting more of that stuff that  we don't really want to see by engaging with it,   so we're also, we're not sharing why we are  annoyed by it, we're not sharing specifically   what was said, we're definitely not sharing  links to the Tweet or the post or whatever it is,   it is just this is what I want to reply with  and I'm going to reply. And it can be sweary,   it can be aggressive, it can be super duper mean,  and you can say whatever you want and then you   move on with your life. You obviously don't have  to use the thread in my Facebook group, you can   maybe have a friend who you message instead. So  this is something I am trying, so far I have found   it very helpful, there have been a few occasions  where I have seen, one was a comment on YouTube   about demisexuality and I tried initially to  just not reply full stop and just be like "I'm   just gonna breathe, what does it matter somebody  doesn't believe in demisexuality? Who cares?"   and it just started to eat me alive. So I hopped  over to that thread in the Acorn Facebook group,   I left a little rant and and I felt  better. I did, I let it go, I let it go,   I don't feel it now, I can tell you about this  story, I'm not still angry about it, I don't   care. That person can go about their day, I can  go about my day, we'll live happily ever after.   So I invite you to, when you see that post and you  feel, maybe you've already started rage typing,   I mean you can rage type it to them and cut and  paste it and then not send it to them but send   it to your friend, post it on a thread, where you  are invited to post it, something like that, just   so you can get it out of your system but you are  not sharing that content even further, you're not   engaging with it, you're not getting into a back  and forth, you're not raising your blood pressure,   you're not involving your own followers and  dragging them into this sort of mess. I will say,   if it is hate speech, if it is inciting violence,  if it is super duper horrific, I will report it.   I would still not advise engaging with it, report  that content. I know a lot of social networks   aren't the best at taking down all the hate  speech and stuff, they're not, but the more of   us who actually just report that content instead  of engaging with it, the less far it will go,   the more likely it is to be taken down. So if  it is genuine hate speech and just awful stuff,   please just report it. But I invite you try, speak  to a friend, find a thread, start your own thread   in a Facebook group with permission of the mods  or whoever's Facebook group it is, drop it in   the Acorn Facebook group on the thread there, find  some way where you can. If you're a private person   you can just journal about it, write it in your  own journal, get it out of your system. But yeah,   I challenge you to try for a week. Try for a  week, how many times can you catch yourself and   not respond to that person? And how does it make  you feel? Maybe you find it just doesn't help,   you've really got to fire it at the person who  said it, okay that's fine. But if it helps I   would love to hear about it, even if it doesn't  help I would love to hear about it! Tell me your   experience with it, I am interested. So this is a  little bit of a different tip episode but I would   be really interested to hear if it helps you  and I will definitely be continuing to do this.   So yeah, as I mentioned I have a free Facebook  group that is "Acorn a nourishing ecosystem for   small biz," there will be a link in the show notes  to that. I also have, if you want group support   but also extra trainings and courses and all  that kind of thing, I have the Social Media for   Humans Club for small business owners to figure  out how to make social media work for them. The   podcast is also on Patreon, so if you want early  access to episodes you can get those over there,   they are about three weeks ahead over on Patreon  so get over there to get some juicy, juicy juicy   guest episodes early. Yeah! Come follow me on  social media and take care of yourself.

Hawke: 8:02

If you want more regular reminders to find   your own way to use social media, follow Alexis on your social platform of choice, all the links will be  in the show notes. Until next time, be a human.