Your No-Fear Guide to Social Media

(Weekly strategies for finding the unexpected upsides in midlife chaos 🥴)

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)

1. Your social media bible

2. What I’m reading/watching

3. Before there was Facebook…

🧐 What’s Up With All These Social Media Platforms?

In the beginning, Zuck created Facebook

And Facebook was good. And thus begat Twitter. Then Instagram. Then LinkedIn. And now Threads and Bluesky?

So, what gives?! Here's your no-fear guide to social media in 2024:

🔍 Let’s Break it Down

Facebook: The high school reunion that never ends

Best for:

• Finding local events and groups

• Marketplace deals (when you're willing to battle scammers)

• Keeping up with family (for better or worse)

Pro tip: Turn off notifications. Trust me, you don't need to know every time someone from high school has a thought.

Instagram: Where we all pretend our lives look like magazine spreads

Best for:

• Visual inspiration (and mild life envy)

• Following specific interests (#gardeningover50 anyone?)

• Keeping up with your kids (until they block you)

Pro tip: Use 'Close Friends' for posts you don't want your whole book club to see.

LinkedIn: The office party that never ends

Best for:

• Job hunting (obviously)

• Professional humble-brags

• Reading surprisingly personal essays about leadership lessons learned while making coffee

Pro tip: Update your profile BEFORE you need it. Trust me on this one.

Threads: Instagram's chatty cousin

Best for:

• Casual conversations

• Finding your people

• Avoiding the rage-fest that Twitter became

Pro tip: The algorithm is chaotic — post when you feel like it and don't stress about "best times."

Bluesky: The speakeasy of social media

Best for:

• Early adopters

• Twitter refugees

• People who like feeling slightly superior about their social media choices

Pro tip: Grab your handle now, decide if you care later.

🙈 The Real Talk Section:

1. Pick Your Platform

• Choose ONE primary platform where your people hang out (I chose Threads)

• Add a second if you're feeling ambitious

• Ignore the rest without guilt

2. Set Your Boundaries

• Turn off notifications (it decreases the addictiveness)

• Use time limits (same)

• Remember: FOMO is a lie. Nothing life-changing is ever happening on any social media platform.

3. Create Your Content Strategy (aka "What do I post?!")

• Share what you actually care about

• Format it for easy reading (think sandwich: a top slice of bread, some meat in the middle, a bottom slice of bread 🥪)

• When in doubt, post about books/coffee/pets — the holy trinity of social media

MORAL OF THE STORY: Social media is like a cocktail party — you don't need to attend every one, and you definitely don't need to be the last one to leave. Pick your spots, show up when you want to, and never feel bad about leaving early.

P.S. If anyone tells you that you "have to" be on a particular platform, remember: You're a grown up. You don't have to do anything.

P.P.S. You’ll notice I didn’t mention TikTok. Why not? Because it’s just too annoying. Beware of TikTok. From what I can see, once you get trapped in that algorithm, you never lift your head from your phone again!

📺 What I’m Reading/Watching

Peggy, Rebecca Godfrey with Leslie Jamison. This book is a beautiful dreamscape first person novel about Peggy Guggenheim, niece of the Guggenheim Museum, whose father died on the Titanic, and who became one of the foremost art collectors of the 20th Century. It’s also a story of being Jewish in high society New York in the early-mid 20th Century, self-hatred, family trauma, finding your way, quite a lot of Paris, and the great artists, intellectuals, and writers that Peggy Guggenheim either slept with or supported (or both) throughout her life.

While I was reading the book, my sister (a writer) asked me what I was reading. At the same moment I shared the title with her, she was sitting next to a photo of the author, who turns out to have been a friend of my sister’s, and who died two years ago, very young, from cancer. The book was finished by her friend and mentor, and the acknowledgments are incredibly moving unto themselves. I’m so glad I read this book!

⏪ Before there was Facebook…

The summer of 1984, before I headed off to college, I received in the mail a hardcover book: my ‘freshman facebook.’ It had pics of every incoming freshman for the Wesleyan U. Class of 1988, along with two of our interests (all the guys chose ‘Computers’ — pretty sure I chose ‘People’ and something else). OMG we POURED over that thing! I can’t put my hands on mine — it’s in storage somewhere — but here’s one from the internet. Do you have yours??

That’s it for this week! If this was fun, please hit the subscribe button! I’ll be back next Sunday night with something old, something new… 😆

- Kara, Gen X woman totally on the verge