Dec 2

Dec 2 Letters on Social Media #11

A young woman looks at her phone with a perplexed expression

Carmen, you know about this stuff.

If a friend posts some great news, and you see it on - let’s say - Facebook, and you like and respond to it, but then you see the same or similar post by them on Instagram and Twitter, should you also respond there, or should you just like it? I mean, obviously they might have automated things so that their post ended up on multiple platforms at once, so is liking it in more than one place creepy? Or is it actually mean-spirited if you don’t? OR should you actually just message them privately, and can you do that AND make a public reply, or is that too much? How important is it to them to have people respond publicly? Am I overthinking this?

A man looks holding a tablet runs his eyes, as if drained by the internet.

Harry,

I just spent thirty-eight minutes of my life following a conversation thread on Twitter which involved precisely no one I know, and all because someone I do know (though not IRL, obv) ‘liked’ it into my feed. Now I know all about the lives of a whole group of people who not only will I never meet, but I don’t even find interesting. Why did I do this? It may just be tiredness, but I’m wondering if this is a sinister plot by Twitter to replace people’s addictions to soaps with inane social media conversations instead.

Dad x

A young woman sitting outside and holding her phone gazes into the middle distance somewhat sadly.

Madge,

There are Covid deniers whose comments get retweeted or commented into my social media feeds, and they’re full on QAnon-style conspiracy nuts with a depressingly high number of followers. But the bit that really freaks me out is that they’re not in Flordia or Texas - they’re in Bakewell and Skeggy! I’m scared. Rx

A man at an office block window looks at his phone.

Not gonna lie,

I’m really enjoying the fact that loads of ‘friends’ who I now pretty much accept that I hate-follow are almost completely silent right now, and this break from the your-life-can-never-be-as-good-as-mine! accounts is really doing wonders for my mental health. Am I a terrible person?

Shane xo

A woman standing in a town square looks at her phone in bemusement.

Some stranger just criticised my post for no reason!

Like, I don’t even actually know her except as a follower on stuff, and when I asked what the problem was, it turned out she thought I was a brand, not a person. When I said I was just sharing some personal pics that I thought were nice, she unfollowed me on everything! If this is where we’re at, and no one’s sure if we’re humans, brands or bots any more, then I’m definitely going to need to schedule in an existential crisis for the near future, because WHAT?

Letters on Social Media is a humorous series of fictional letters that aims to explore some of the ways our fragile human minds are ill-equipped to cope with the world of digital communication.

Plans are afoot to turn Letters on Social Media into a micro-podcast. If you would like to record yourself reading one of the letters, I’d be delighted. Just get in touch via the Contact page or via my social media, and I’ll let you know which letters are available.

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