Facebook in Ten Minutes a Day

I was advised that the best platform for my virtual seminars was going to be Facebook.

I rebelled at that.  I don't think social media brings out the best in a lot of people.   Also, Facebook has so, so much power over our lives and our used-to-be-private information.  

I studied alternatives, investigating a number of streaming platforms.  They were either expensive, complicated, or both.  

I ended up using Facebook because it lets you leave the video up in the private group so people can watch it whenever they want while the group is operating!  That is a fantastic feature.  Also, you can post all sorts of documents and links that keep all the necessities for a seminar together.  

I used Facebook, and it worked out just great.  Yup, I'll use it again.  I liked everything but Facebook "Rooms," which is like Zoom but not as good, not at all as good.

With me doing the seminars on FB, a lot of you are now communicating with me on FB.  I had to stop ignoring Facebook and start keeping an eye on it.  My friend list is longer, so I get more of everything.  If there's anger or negativity, I don't want that in my head because I will keep thinking about it.  

I especially want to manage my time, too - you know, more knitting and less nattering!

I have developed a deliberate system to deal with Facebook daily in 10 minutes or less.  I'm getting better at it, too!

Step One:  Open Notifications

1. Check friend requests, and if the person is not a knitter, delete the request.  When my FB friend group got so large, a bunch of handsome older men with blank profiles wanted to be my friends.  These are fake scammer pod people.  An actual knitter usually has several of my knitting buddies on their friend list or pictures of their knitting machines or knitted items.  
2. I love knitting posts, especially if they have pictures.  I only answer if I think I can add value somehow, perhaps answer a question or make a suggestion someone else hasn't already given.
3. If the post is political, religious, sentimental, or any other kind of non-knitting, I might read it and I might not.  I am training myself to look at the picture and read the first sentence or so and make a decision.  This is most of the forwarded content and it's easily identified!  I spend no time on those whatsoever.  
4. I do pay attention to family pictures and updates, of course.
5. If the post is mean spirited, I spend no time on it.  I hardly ever see these, though, since most of my friends are knitters, an awesome group of people.  
6. If the post is non-knitting and it's in a knitting group I administer, I delete it.  It's usually just a mistake.  For those groups, I posted "knitting only and be nice" rules, rules which also apply to me.  

Step Two:  Look at Messages

1. If the message has a clickable link, I don't click it.  It might be malware.  I learned this the hard way.  :(  
2. If the message is from a knitter or customer, I will do what I can to help them.  If it's a simple question, answer; if not, give them my email address and ask them to write an email.
3. If the person wants to "chat" or "say hello," that's nice, but I do not respond.  
4. If the person is writing in a foreign language, I do not respond.  I don't know why I get so many of these, but it looks like they sent them to a boatload of people and they're not really for me.

Does anyone want to spend less time on social media in 2021?  You might make your own strategy to burn through it faster.