I try to leave positive comments on blogs and even on Facebook when possible. These days comments can be a landmine that can hurt your heart and mind. We live in a time when everyone has a pulpit and something to say. Feedback is great but it can also be surprising. It hurts even more when a friend speaks from a place of fear and ignorance. Being online isn’t for sissies anymore that is for sure. Kindness I hope still means something but sometimes you aren’t sure if its the thing to do anymore. Read the comments at your own peril, if you dare.
Tag Archives: social media
Update The Links, It Will Make Your Blog Better
If you have links to your other social pages on widgets or other parts of your page make sure they are the most current links. Sometimes we change our usernames on things like Twitter and Instagram and forget about making those changes to the links on our blogs. Granted there are times when we want to be a little more private so one doesn’t want that information out to our readers and followers.
Updating your blog is important and updating the links on it is very helpful for those who want to see more of what you are doing online.
SocialMediaSunday | The Episcopal Church in East Tennessee
The Episcopal Church in East Tennessee
Source: SocialMediaSunday | The Episcopal Church in East Tennessee
Tomorrow the churches of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee are encouraged to participate in Social Media Sunday. It is about making connections and sharing with the world what our churches are doing. I blog, Tweet, Instagram and Facebook so I will be doing my part. Other churches of other traditions will be doing their part too. I am excited to be a part of this effort at my church St. Peter’s Episcopal in Chattanooga.
Unfriend/Unfollow, It Happens
There comes a time in everyone’s social media life where they must unfollow/unfriend people on various platforms. Facebook is one of those places where it is a chosen community of people you are connecting with and sometimes their posts can either be repetitive and sometimes offensive. Granted there no two people who agree with each other 100% of the time, and that is OK. It’s only when those people ramp up the rhetoric, whether it be political, religious or social commentary that can be very negative, that you have to make that decision on your connection status.
In America we are in the midst of an election campaign season where we will go to the polls in 2016 to elect a new president and other federal offices. Canada just completed that cycle recently and sometimes being on social media can be challenging when it comes to politics because it can be personal. It’s the constant barrage of posts that come from friends who post mean spirited things that can test your relationship status.
Religious and social commentary can be divisive too. We have all seen the issues such as faith, gender, orientation and the like that people fall on different sides of. To me it’s OK to disagree on some things, but you know it’s amazing to see the venom on your screen from people who you thought were reasonable and kind. It can be disappointing to see comments that are out there for the world to see and you wonder what is the source of their ire.
I know there are people who have unfollowed/unfriended me for various reasons and that is OK. Perhaps this is an opportunity for all of us to examine our friendships and who we are as individuals who have a right to feel the way they want to about all the stuff going on in the world. It is OK to be sad when your friendships change, that is life.
Then there are sports rivalries and that can be just as contentious as politics, religion and social issues. Especially on rivalry days.
Unfriending, Unfollowing, it happens and you have to move on. Sometimes you just have to cut ties.
A Returning Blogger
When a blogger returns to the scene after a absence it’s a joyous thing. Over time you get used to seeing them post daily and then all of a sudden they disappear so you wonder what happened to them. I am always glad to see folks come back after being away. For some a break is needed because they get writers block or perhaps they need to find their passion again.
Sometimes a bloggers computer is on the fritz or perhaps there are temporary Internet problems which make blogging impossible. I have taken breaks from blogging but I am not gone very long because this is a passion for me. Unfortunately some bloggers have to leave for safety sake and that is a horrible way to be forced offline.
To all who have come and gone and are back again its a joyous time. Don’t stay gone so long next time! Keep on blogging!

