A 50 SOMETHING’S GUIDE TO NAVIGATING THE SOCIAL WORLD
MY JOURNEY THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
So, I am 55 years old – yes, I was born in the 60s – yet I feel like I am thirty something, old enough to have my opinion respected and young enough to be hip. The fact that I just used the word “hip” to describe myself is probably a tale-tale sign that I am not. My kids call me a “boomer”, but I don’t quite fit into that category either. My mom is a boomer – not me! As I said, I am hip.
One of the challenges of being fifty something and living in this world of technology is that I live in this world of technology. When I went to high school, we learned the keyboard on an IBM Selectric. We typed, because, well, typing pools (boomer speak) and nothing came from it except a blank piece of paper now had words on it that you had created. You could even correct any mistakes by pressing a key on the machine and it would white out your mistake.
Computers were just being introduced into the mainstream and we had one class in all four years of high school dedicated to learning MS dos. The school owned twenty computers each the size of a small file cabinet and were used by all eight hundred students in the school. Booting up took the first 15 minutes of class. I still know absolutely nothing about MS dos.
Now I am on my third act of life, my first was attorney, my second was a mom, and I saved the best act for last (drum roll please) WRITING! I naively thought that “writing” meant I would just write. I would use my skills learned on that IBM Selectric, the words would show up on a screen rather than paper (long live the trees) and that would be that. Stories would be told, awards would be won, accolades and recognition would fall at my feet. (insert slapped forehead here)
Little did I know that once the typing was done, I would then have to promote myself, not my stories, but little old me on social media. Blog, page, post, content creation etc etc all the things that when I say them make me sound far from hip as I am sure I am using them improperly – like a boomer would. I don’t know the difference between a blog, a post or content – I don’t know what it is to “trend” these days. I honestly don’t know what will happen to these words I am typing now (at a sixty word per minute clip thank you IBM) once I hit “post”.
This is the journey I have decided to take. It’s not a journey of writing stories, that was the fun part. It’s the journey of learning this new world and new language of technology and promotion. I have read the blogs and the posts (at least that’s what I think they were) on how to get my stories in front of the masses. The masses are now on their computers so that is where I will meet them. I look forward to the journey and I hope you enjoy as I blog (or is it post?) the experience.
