Coping – and how Social media can help
Peter Morris
October 11, 2024
Social Media has, in some quarters, a poor reputation, particularly those who move in government circles. That of course has never stopped politicians using it, often with noticeable bias. But is it as bad as it is made out to be? Peter Morris looks at a more positive side.
I signed up for Twitter in 2009. I thought it might be a great way to actually contact people and get some interaction. So, I started following, not so much people I know (there were very few I knew on there anyway), but celebrities, comedians, film stars and people like that, but little did I know at the time, being a bit Twitter-Green, no matter what I tweeted, or who I followed, there was complete radio silence. Not any likes or comments and certainly no new followers.
What a waste of time, I thought. Indeed it was. They were only interested in blowing their own trumpet, self-congratulations, and giving tour dates and stuff like that. I abandoned it for a couple of years.
I eventually came back to it, and resurrected my account (which was left dormant, not closed). I started binning the celebrity accounts I had previously followed. Of course nobody missed me. Why would they?
I started following a few of the News feeds to get the latest information of what was happening in the world. I quickly realised that some of them were and are biased in the extreme and often tell lies. I also started following what some would call 'the little people' who didn’t have huge followings, but seemed to talk sense.
Slowly (and it was slow), I started to gain followers. Milestones were reached; 100 followers, then 500 followers. I just kept tweeting - getting genuine feedback and likes. It has to be said I got some vile responses too, from trolls and bots. I rarely engaged with them, just hit the block button.
I seem to remember a big milestone was when I reached 1,000 followers. That was a bit of a slog, as my account seemed to be throttled back. I’d gain a few followers and lose more than I gained in the same week. It was very frustrating - if only they told me what exactly I might have said wrong (in their eyes). But they didn’t. So I persevered, and carried on. Onward and upward you might say.
By this time, I had got interested in politics (good or bad? I don’t know). I could see how the mainstream media manipulated information, either by omission and not reporting things, or telling down right lies.
Of course, the more followers I gained, the more discerning I had to be with who I followed and why. My following grew and grew over the years. I have to say it does help if you can string a sentence together - I might not get it grammatically correct all the time, and do the odd typo or misspell. But don’t we all?
I’m retired now, but back when I was working, I had the freedom to tweet during the day whenever I pleased, and of course in the evening too. Because I have never been a solid sleeper, sometimes it was even in the middle of the night. Not good if you have to get up and go to work in the morning. Now of course, I can do what I like, whenever I like, any time of day or night.
I now have over 38,000 followers, which by celeb standards makes me still one of the ‘little people’. But I have a decent ‘reach’. I even have moderate celebs following me these days.
I’m kind of known for what I would call my ‘epic rants’. It is usually something that irks me. Not necessarily about politics, but anything really. People seem to enjoy reading them, and I try to respond to comments I get. But sometimes, there are more than I can cope with.
Then! One fateful day, my partner Bev passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly. I was and still am bereft with grief. Although I still tweet (X, these days) prolifically, I don’t have family who live less than 100 miles away. I used to commute to the small company I worked for, so no ‘friends’ nearby. I’m totally alone. A chat on the phone doesn’t work for me, its actual human company that I crave.
Anyway, I have a friend - I call a lot of followers that - who lives in Portugal, on the Algarve (I’m in England) who I had talked to on and off for many, many years. I had never met her or her husband in real life, in fact never spoken to them either. They saw my plight and invited me to Portugal to stay with them for a while, just to get away from things. I took a huge leap of faith and went there.
They picked me up from the airport which was 1 ½ hours drive from their beautiful home, on a hillside overlooking the sea. It was just that - simply beautiful. They looked after me every second of the day. Took me here there and everywhere, and made sure I didn’t have to walk too far (I’m not too steady on my feet, but that’s a tale for another day). When it was time to come home, they again took me to the airport. I can’t thank them enough.
The point I’m making, is that twitter ‘friends’ can be real - loving, caring people. We all have ‘stuff’ going on in our life. But who would guess some people could be so kind?
It’s not the only story I have of people being kind to me, but I’ll save that for another day.
© Pete Morris 2024
Image – HelpGuide
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What an honest and poignant article, I look forward to many more, thank you so much!
Gez
Peter's article will strike a chord with many people.
Kevan James