I love blogging but in order to be a successful blogger you also need to understand how to integrate social media into your life – and this is where I struggle. It’s so easy to adopt the habit of picking up our phones, tapping on those icons and then scrolling endlessly and mindlessly. This is why I’m changing the way I use social media – to use it more intentionally and positively.

For me social media is a great way to communicate to the rest of the blogging community and with the lovely people who read this blog. However, it’s also really easy to get sucked into the negative aspects that seem to follow. By changing the way I use social media platforms I truly believe that I can create content that I’m proud of and a community that is inspiring and encouraging.

Changing the Way I Use Social Media in 2020

Before I headed on my trip to Japan back in October I uninstalled the Twitter and Facebook apps from my phone. I wanted to create more space on my phone but I also didn’t want to find myself being distracted by random notifications. That was almost 16 weeks ago and I haven’t put them back on, instead I’ve found that by simply logging in via my laptop once or twice a week I’ve been less likely to spend time scrolling when I could have been doing something more productive.

If you’re thinking about changing the way you use social media, or you’re just mildly interested to know how long you spend using your phone, then I suggest downloading an app tracker which will tell you how often you use your phone over the course of a day. I used one for a while and it turned out that I spent an average of 1.5 hours per day scrolling through various platforms – this meant over 10 hours a week which could have been spent doing other things.

I slowly came to the realisation that I needed to step away from platforms that were ultimately distracting me from the more important things that were going on around me.

Back in 2018 I took part in Scroll Free September – I stepped away from all forms of social media for the entire month and to be honest it was great, but as I’ve been focusing on building this blog I’ve slowly found myself becoming more and more engrossed in the world online – that was until I stopped again a few months ago.

If I’m honest it’s felt like a relief. My blog posts are set up so they automatically post links to Twitter and Facebook, this makes it so much easier. It means that I don’t actually have to log in myself and risk wasting time scrolling through utter nonsense. The drawback to this is that I’ve failed to actually involve myself with those who I follow and who follow me in return.

The question is, how am I going to use social media in the future?

Twitter

For me, Twitter is the most contentious of the social media platforms. I enjoy the conversational side to Twitter, and I am all for people having opinions and sharing them but there is a line between opinion and abuse and I find it difficult when that line is crossed.

In 2020 I will therefore continue to share my blog posts on Twitter and will share other people’s work which I find inspiring and encouraging and fun to read and that I believe should be enjoyed by others.

I will not however allow myself to get sucked into negative conversations and will not highlight the behaviour of others by acknowledging their words and actions.

Facebook

I have a Facebook page which is connected to this blog and I am part of a number of groups associated with the topics of travel and blogging. I love this part of Facebook, finding groups and communities to be part of, discussing topics that interest me, asking and answering questions and generally being inspired by other creative people.

However the way some of these groups have evolved has caused me to step away from them over the last few months. Bitchiness and abusive language has infiltrated some of these communities and so the supportive and encouraging nature has become toxic. These are not groups that I want to be part of anymore.

I love groups that allow me to discover new creative writers and photographers, where I can share their work as well as my own, but what I don’t enjoy is the way some groups are now becoming more like pods, where you have to like and share every post promoted whether you like the content or not. 

In 2020 I will still be part of the Facebook groups that I feel offer value and allow me to share the content that I have found interesting and informative.

I will not use these groups to simply obtain meaningless comments.

Instagram

Instagram is the platform that seems to cause the most amount of issues for people. It is full of superficial and dishonest content, where people sell themselves in return for likes and money. However, it is also full of people who are trying to be positive and inspiring, who want to engage with an audience who can ultimately make a difference.

I think the biggest problem is that people forget that Instagram is just a photo sharing app. It isn’t what makes us feel bad about ourselves, or sells a false lifestyle that leads us into the comparison trap, an app cannot do that – we do it to ourselves, because we use it in the wrong way.

In 2020 I will be working hard to improve my photography skills, but that’s because it’s become something that I enjoy and that I want to focus on. Instagram will simply be the place where I share my work. As I travel and take photographs I will share my work, but I won’t obsess over the number of likes – simply post and step away. If people like the image then that is up to them. If they comment I will respond.

As far as following other people is concerned I will only follow accounts that I want to follow, not just because they are popular – in fact I will be making more of an effort to follow smaller accounts like my own, to offer encouragement to their content. 

Running this blog is my priority, and although having a social media presence is thought of as essential it will not be my primary focus. The work I produce for my blog is where my focus is, where I hope people will be inspired and encouraged, where they will comment and interact with me.

Basically I want to reconnect with the social aspect again. I want to enjoy social media, to remind myself that they are meant to ways for us to communicate with each other, not tools for us to beat ourselves with.

Are you changing the way you use social media in 2020?

Let me know in the comments.