When I started this blog just over two years ago, I never gave much thought to social media.
My vision was to write about the life of one 59-year old woman and her misadventures and life as both an empty-nester and one of living with a Frenchman. Over time, the blog evolved into more—I started writing about fashion, cosmetics, food, traveling, and randomness but all with a sense of humor.
Me as Little Edie Beale from my post about Edie Beale as my fashion icon. It was humorous but respectful to my Edie! And it actually was one of my personal favorite blog posts!
Sounds simple. Right?
Then, as I started to become a bit (and I mean a bit) more educated about the world of blogging, and started to research on how to make my blog more “popular” (i.e. followers) it was always stressed at how important social media was. To have a successful blog, it meant taking steps to be a part of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
I get that. To a point.
I opened a Twitter account and started to “Tweet”—but realized three things. 1. I am not a celebrity nor am I a mega-blogger so my tweets basically went unnoticed. Which is fine because tweeting is too much of an effort for me. 2. Since Trump became president, I’ve tweeted some nasty stuff and saw that the nasty stuff I’ve written shows up on the sidebar of my blog. I don’t want to mix my politics with my blog because there is enough political shit roaming around cyberspace. And—I didn’t want to offend any of the more reserved readers of my blog with my tweets toward a certain political figure. 3. My Twitter Account isn’t even in my blog’s name and it’s too much of a bother to change it. So—I’ve stopped tweeting for now.
I’ll just keep my personal twitter account. It’s too much bother to have one in my blog’s name. I can’t believe I actually tweeted over 2,000 times!
I’ve been on Facebook for a few years now. And what I absolutely loved (and I say loved because I no longer feel that way) about FB was the ability to connect with friends I’ve had since my childhood days and old friends from my New York and New Jersey days.
But, FB has become a weird place. It has brought out the worst in me because of the way I feel about a certain person who was elected President. That’s all I will mention on that subject. But, slowly I noticed many “sponsored” posts popping up. I do not want to see posts about healthcare or people who need prayers (and no—I’m not against prayer. I pray all the time. I just do not want that stuff shoved in my face). I don’t want to see ads. All I want to see on my private FB page are posts from my friends and posts from those in the groups I belong to.
Separating my private life from my blog, I do have a Facebook page for my blog. And at first, I was very “gung ho” about it. Now I’m very lazy—and it isn’t because I don’t want people to read my posts, it’s because I’ve become disillusioned with Facebook in general.
I need to get back to being friends with my blog’s FB page, but…
I don’t wanna deal with all of this! I want simplicity! This is too complicated!
And then there’s the piece de resistance of all social media (well, at least in my eyes). Instagram!
I started an Instagram account maybe a bit over a year ago in my blog’s name. The reason being that we have no internet service at the apartment we rent in Theoule but I thought it would be fun to snap pics and post them when I had the opportunity to be in an area with Wi-Fi. And I thought it would be great to have a glimpse into the lives of others through their photos.
And all was well until recently. I noticed that my favorite “feeds” from those I followed weren’t showing up and those who I follow, I follow for a reason! I love their posts and photos! I also noticed that more and more “sponsored” ads were showing up in my feed. I do not like that.
Why is this showing up in my IG feed? I am not a follower nor do I plan to be. My loyalty to scent is with Guerlain!
My suspicions were validated when I read a blog post from “Not Dressed As Lamb” The post is “Why Instagram Really Isn’t Much Fun Anymore“. Honestly, click and read her post to get a better understanding of the demise of Instagram. She’s got a nice blog and is very generous in her link ups. And her name is Catherine *ahem*. What a lovely name for a lovey woman!
My posts were being inundated with comments from sites that advertised to me I could get more “likes” and exposure if I paid them. Oh, hell no—no way would I pay for a “like”!
Uh unh. Catherine don’t PAY that game!
Nothing was in chronological order anymore!
Yeah Instagram. You are being rude by taking the people I follow regularly and hiding their feeds from me. And you are being rude with all those ads, and allowing follow-to-unfollow…
Worse yet, was the “follow-to-unfollow” trend that I was being baited with. In case you don’t know what “follow-to-unfollow” is, it is an incredibly dishonest and unethical means of getting your account numbers to rise—thusly, having your account become very intriguing to “brands”.
You “follow to unfollow” me and you will have one less follower!
A IG’er will suddenly “follow” you. And, being polite, you follow back. Many times, these are bloggers who are after big numbers. A day or so later, you will notice that same person who followed you has “unfollowed” you. This was happening quite often to me—so I did some sleuthing and discovered these Instagrammers/bloggers had something like 20,000 followers and were only following about 50 people. I became wise to that little activity and uploaded an app for that. Now if someone follows to unfollow me, I can find out who they are and “click”—their number just went down a follower. Does it make a dent in their numbers? Nope! But it makes me feel a whole bunch better!
You got that right. (Caveat–this is referring to Instagram only. I “lost” many “friends” from FB due to my politics–and I’m better off!)
My blog is my baby. I look forward to coming home from work to write. I never know what’ll pop into my head and I let my thoughts collect then start blogging. I love the people who read my blog because it’s an excellent group. We’ve become friends who’ve never met and we all respect each other.
And with or without Social Media, I’m pleased as punch to keep writing, to keep venting, to keep others laughing and to keep having fun.
With or without Social Media, I got a loverly group of Atypical60 friends!!
And speaking of fun, I did a bit of shopping for our upcoming trip. I can’t believe we leave for France in two weeks!
Whadaya think??
You will NOT believe this. I happened to stop at Primark after work on Thursday looking for another pair of those $13 jeans. Well, THIS dress was randomly hanging on a rack. It was the last one. And my size. $16 worth of heaven. I like it better than the one I bought at J. Crew! It also looks just like the one Oona bought at Zara.
Try-on’s at Marshalls. The white jeans and checked top from the middle pic came home with me and are now in the huge pile to be squeezed into the carry-on!
This hat was a great buy for $12.99. The top is SPF 50 fabric, which will also protect my fake hair from getting all tangled up like it can with straw. The brim is nice and wide to protect my face in the sun. I freakin’ love this hat. Notice the color of my “hair”? It’s the Juno wig from It’s A Wig and I got her for $9.99!
I wasn’t very good in journaling my outfits this week. Here’s Friday’s casual look. I love this sweater but, alas, it is now too warm to wear it.
This was my favorite look of the week. A pocketed skirt that I picked up last year at Uniqlo paired with a $4.00 Tee from Old Navy. Black Repettos and a French Market basket as tote gave me a bit of a Bardot vibe! (well, if Bardot wore fake black hair and was cross-eyed and wore glasses and was about 20 pounds heavier and wasn’t French!)
A maxi from last year–Old Navy gave me a day without having to shave my legs!
I’m wearing this now!!
Hey. What say you? Are you into social media? Whether or not you are a blogger, I am really curious!!!
What other song could I have possibly played today except this one—Follow You Follow Me from Genesis! Have a great end to the weekend!!
