My Relationship with social media is the same as most relationships, there are things that I love about it and then there are things about it that I wish were different. There are moments were I think
social media is supportive, enjoyable, knowledgeable but then it can be insincere, co-dependant, addictive, tiresome, or just plain old judgy.
Social Media & Me
Personal Pros:
- I can see all the opportunities other people are experiencing through their posts
- I can showcase experiences I am having
- It keeps my pictures! This is huge for me, I no longer need to print them out I can just have them easily accessible, and organized. No clutter in my house
- Can see memories
- Can communicate with others
Personal Cons:
- Time consuming
- Mindless- takes me away from the things that I need to be doing
- I compare my life to others; I see what others are experiencing or doing and think “Ah I wish I could do that” or ” I should do that with my family”, it always leaves me feeling worse about myself if I am being honest
- Creates anxiety
- Addictive
Professional Pros:
- Communicate easily with parents/colleagues
- Use less paper (online agenda)
- Access to enrichment activities
- Able to send/share multiple documents
- View professional material
- PD opportunities
- Access to responding to emails anywhere is helpful
Professional Cons:
- Parents ignore the boundaries set out for our online agenda
- I feel obligated to reply to emails, parent messages on Remind right away
- Added pressure we I see other teachers posting about their awesome lessons
- Not as fluent as other teachers in technology so I feel less than in that area
- Anxiety
There you have it folks, thanks for stopping in!
Hi Christine!
First of all, love the How I Met Your Mother inclusion (one of my personal favourites). I agree that a pro and a con is the ability to be able to communicate with others. I can connect to anyone… but ANYONE can connect with me. Personally, I have switched my Facebook name to be written in its original Ukrainian form so that students and parents can’t find me. I agree that some families have no boundaries and will go to no lengths to find you online to send you a message (good or bad).
Perhaps my favourite use of social media is the PD. I have 2 Instagram accounts and both follow like-minded individuals or companies so that I can keep up with the latest developments, trending news, and inventive ideas.
Do you turn off your notifications after a certain time of day or days of the week to create life/work balance and boundaries? I customized my apps this year (Remind, Instagram, etc) to do this so that I could better maintain that balance in my life.
Roxy
That is a really great idea to turn off those notifications. On Remind, I set my office hours so that parents would receive a message prior to hitting send that it was outside of my time but some parents (usually the same ones) chose to ignore it and send anyways with the expectation I will reply right away; however with your suggestion in not seeing those notifications at all that would help alleviate the pressure I feel to respond.
Great blog! I had the same issue replying to parents way too late. Since we have switched to Edsby from Seesaw this has changed a great deal (especially when we had to delete it from our phones). Now I limit checking to when I first arrive at school, end of the day and once at home.
I also have had to remind students of work boundaries and they should not expect me to reply instantly to messages. Thankfully there has not been a lot of push back from parents on this. It’s helped a great deal from feeling “on” all the time, although as a teacher that is hard to get away form.
As you mentioned, I found myself far too anxious with social media. My anxiety would keep me thinking about the comment some stranger would reply or the lack of reaction to a post I thought was funny (what if I offended someone?). Pulling back has helped me. While I still check in regularly, I feel less an urge to respond. It’s too often I forget this and am reminded why I stopped.