Social Media and Me

Love this post.3
I was once very occupied with social media. I had accounts with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Mastodon. My followers in Twitter amounted, at one point, to over thirty thousand. I was happy to write or post messages every day for everyone.
My involvement began to unravel after joining the Royal Canadian Chaplain Service. Because of so many followers, I used the “like” star as a place holder in Twitter in order to go back and review the tweets I had seen but had too many people to look through and to respond to for a single session. Unfortunately, those above me in the chain of command in the military did not understand this and took offence to some of the tweets I had “liked” not understanding the role I was assigning that button.
Some of the tweets I retweeted and some of my own book suggestions caused offence within the Canadian Armed Forces even though they were within the guidelines issued by the Forces.  They were simply books Catholics might find helpful. But critical eyes and hearts decided it was too Catholic and offensive to some who looked at my tweets.
In the end, faced with military punishment, I deleted the account and began a new one and self-censored to avoid a repeat of the past. Unfortunately, that account was suspended by Twitter while deployed in West Africa while transiting Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Sénégal presuming I was a bot and I was unable to contact them through the telephone so far from home.
My Instagram account had been suspended twice because a person in Africa was stealing my photos while living in Malawi and reposting as his or her own with a variety of names for six accounts seeking to swindle followers of their money. Facebook I only used for work at the request of the branch I worked for and used Messenger while deployed at sea. The same person who stole my photos also tried to set up a Facebook account the same as Instagram but I reported this and he was removed. Some time ago I ceased using LinkedIn and Parler.

In one way it has cut me off from many people I supported or felt support from in a great many places around the world. I was able to meet in a virtual way a large number of people and share stories and faith. But also, these programmes created a dependence and a loss of time.

With the changes in my own life, I have not even spent time writing this blog as I could not bring myself to sit at a computer and write when there seemed so many things wrong in my life. The next blog post will go into some of that detail. We all face challenges. Sometimes we need to prioritise events and schedules so that we can accomplish the tasks we are expected to do in out state of life whether married, single, ordained or religious. Pray for discernment and do as the Lord wishes in you life.

Related

When things aren’t going your way

There are times in our lives that we wonder why things are not going our way. Perhaps like a reverse of the Bing Crosby film “Going My Way”. In some cases it may be that there seems no light to lead the way ahead. A dark night during days of living can be a great burden and can lead us to think that there will never be light again. But wait…

Love this post.0

Communication-less

All of this is simply convenience and the simplicity of the life we have created for ourselves. But we have to remember that it is only a creation and something for our convenience. Because even without these electronic means we still are linked. Even if the only way of speaking is through the telephone and writing a letter, that is the way we have done things for many years.

Love this post.0

I wonder…

And how many priests and prelates are well aware of this state of affairs and would rather look away? How many would rather deal with fund raising and parish retention programmes and New Evangelisation programmes which may be or are in actual fact void of the deeper meaning of the Sacraments and how to live them in our daily lives?

Love this post.0

Pin It on Pinterest