Social Media is a bit of a mixed bag , I only mention this as I have noticed that it can be a bit of a trigger for me, not in a really bad way but it just leaves me feeling a bit empty . I remember a magazine from a few years ago that I was reading and they were warning about social media and the general population. The gist of their advice was that Social media like Facebook and instagram show the very best of peoples lives and only that , most people judge the worst of their own lives against it .
My wife and I ( sounds posh when I read that back) , were looking at some vacations ( I put that in there for you Americans who don’t know what a holiday is !) and the main page of these Glamping ( posh expensive camping ) sites stated that they had Instagram ready viewing points within their camp site next to the sea. That is the point , it’s now not good enough to have a good time , you now have to show everybody that you are ….even if you really are not ! When my Aunt went away on holiday when I was a child , we as a family were invited to her apartment a few weeks later to watch slides and a talk about where she went and what happened , in great detail I might add . These involved 30 pictures of the same beach , some nice looking rocks , lots of people eating ice cream and some dead crabs . Now days we can bore people without inviting them around for tea and cake.
The trouble is for us trauma survivors social media can be a great place to find support , meet people who have similar issues , join support information groups and find friends. It’s a great place for trauma centres to advance knowledge of childhood trauma and reach out in a free way to individuals who desperately need their professional help. Let’s face it , people younger than us , well me anyway , live their lives and get their knowledge from social media. Survivors can find mentors ,communities and tackle loneliness, there are some issues surrounding patient privacy, but these can be dealt with easily .
All sounds good then ? well no actually, Firstly , the nice people who post trash , sorry posts, on social media sites cannot be expected to think of everybody their posts might trigger, one persons family photo is another persons reminder, to expect them to not post that picture would be unreasonable. The world is full of nice people , you and me for example ! but not everyone is as nice , the nicest granny sometimes turns into Arnold Schwarzenegger when placed behind the wheel of a car. So normal looking nice people turn into horrible trolls when placed behind a keyboard and told they can be anonymous .Facebook memories , most people love to have these appearing , can be a problem where memories from even deleted friends from the past can show up unexpectedly and these can be a trigger .
I must admit its quite hard to have a bad day where you feel crap and then see pictures of individuals on location somewhere expensive or showing off their new Mercedes or how their child has been accepted to Harvard. I know it’s not always real , they might be stressed out , they may be having financial or health issues , we have no idea , only the image that they portray. They too may be having their issues and their own way of coping is by pretending everything is ok .
Design justice is a term given to coders and social media designers who try to make platforms as safe as possible for all to use . Can I firstly suggest that the algorithm bans anyone from taking a picture of their meal in a restaurant, secondly ban anyone who pouts ,thirdly ban anyone who is younger ,richer, better looking or funnier than me.
Anyway , have a great day , see you next time…..
