What do I really think?

It has been a few weeks now since I stopped visiting Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn regularly. I still check in about once a week to see how close friends and relatives are doing but otherwise I have logged out in all my browsers and removed the apps from all my devices so each visit is a conscious decision. And it feels good.

The one thing I am missing is reaction. I love it when people comment or like the posts on this blog, but my writing used to get much more of a response on the social platforms. It is interesting considering what this change means. Am I only writing to get a response? Do I need approval of my ideas? Or is it enough to get the “down on paper” and shared even in a modest way?

This neediness is true in real life. I remember worrying in work meetings if what I said didn’t get a response, or worse still if someone else’s boring comment got an over the top reaction. I guess we feel the need to relate our thoughts and feelings to others, to gauge their “value”. But the risk is that we lose our way, we don’t know what we really think and become influenced by what we think other people think we think!

Anyway, for the moment, in these times when I am not meeting many people in real life, and my writing is getting less reaction online, I am seeing it as an opportunity to work out what I really think…

11 thoughts on “What do I really think?”

  1. Hi Euan,
    Rest assured, even if you don’t get direct reactions… we (I) read and think about your posts. Personally I am no longer on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Happy to see we are in the same trend 😉

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  2. Stunned silence is possibly an indicator that what I said was really on point but the audience either hadnt considered it or didnt know how to respond. Its a tough one though and you can’t be too certain, maybe what I thought was really relevant was in fact totally off point. It’s good not to be too concern about getting feedback. Maybe the clever person in the room is a threat to be ostracised and someones comment on the biscuit tin is a welcome relief as everyone can all take part in the conversation… there merit in inclusiveness too just difficult when there are hard decisions that really need to be made and some people aren’t cut out for critical thinking.

    I appreciate your effort to blog away from social media platforms. It maybe an extremely hard to get much interaction, but a valiant effort and worth experiment in with.

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    1. Likewise, though I too should comment more often! What I have also take to doing again is visiting blogs and scrolling through past posts. It is a better way to read in many ways.

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  4. When I was working in an actual workplace lots of people would tell me that they had read my blog but were too shy to comment or that they had ‘nothing to say’. When the comments are few and far between I try to remember that someone out there is reading my words and hopefully thinking their own private thoughts.
    Having said that, I love it when people comment and I don’t think of it as being needy, I just like making connections with other people.

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    1. It’s true. Over the years I’ve had people tell me that one of my posts has made a real difference to them and I had no idea. And the reason I’ve kept blogging all these years is the connections. I now have amazing friends all over the world, many of whom I’ve never met.
      The comment about neediness is just me thinking more about my reactions when a post gets no response. I know it shouldn’t bother me but it still does, even if just a little.

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  5. Euan, does it matter what I think if no one knows what I think? As someone who doesn’t blog and, with the current lockdown, has very limited access to people to share and discuss I am bereft. Of course i share with Carole but do not always get back the response i would hope for/like.

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