COM0014-Blog 1- My Vacation

Our last vacation was a weeklong trip camping about 20 minutes from home. For some this might not sound like a very exciting vacation but for my husband and I, this is exactly what was needed after a year full of career changes for the two of us, both leaving jobs that we had been at for him over 15 years and myself close to 10.

A week to sit with little to no cell phone service, a few good books, good company and all the yummy camping food and snacks is just what was needed to recharge some empty batteries.

There is no documentation of this trip as we tried to completely disconnect from our devices during this trip. I am also horrible at taking pictures and always forget to. It was just my husband and I this trip both of us are no good at remembering to get out our phones and take pictures to document.  My best friend on the other hand takes all the pictures and has hundreds to document one single event. I wish I was this person, what about you?

We aren’t the type to hop on a plan and travel the world, we enjoy sticking close to home, packing up our camping trailer and camping for the weekend or a week what ever we feel like doing. As I am typing this I am also packing for out first camping trip of the season, and I can’t wait. Last minute camping trips are the best! Friends call and say let’s go camping, so you pack up and hit the road. What type of vacationer are you?

Since the pandemic even trying to get camp sites in any provincial park is like trying to get tickets to the hottest concerts. You need to be online exactly 5 months before the date you want to go and be ready as soon as the website opens at 7 am, its wild! I think I had an easier time getting Taylor Swift tickets than I did a camp site the last time I booked.

Camping is my favourite place in the world, we have tried many different provincial parks and have enjoyed the ones that we have tried, we have also tried a few private campgrounds but keep being drawn back to the provincial parks. Presquile in Brighton Ontario is our go to as it is super close to home, but Bon Echo and Algonquin are our favourite ones to go to but hardest to get a site.  Are you a camper, if so, do you prefer provincial parks or private ones?

If money was no issue and you could go any where in the world for a vacation and do any thing while on that vacation where would you go and what would you do?

Authentic Social Media Posts or Filtered?

What type of content are you drawn to on social media, the perfectly curated or the day in the life authentic stuff?

Personally, I love a good day in the life vlog or Reel. I want to see your life and see that you are just an average person just like me. If your morning starts with a full glam squad everyday, then your space is not the space for me. Once and awhile these videos are fun to watch but I apricate the authenticity of seeing that you are just like me. I just want to see the real you. Unedited, unfiltered, just being you.

My favourite influencer goes by the handle The Birds Papaya, she posts real life unedited stuff, from parenting stuff to just average “boring” day to day life stuff. Sometimes she posts some stuff where she is getting dressed up to attend an event or some other fancy type of stuff, but generally her day-to-day content is just family and real-life stuff.

Recently she faced some backlash after posting about her mental health struggles. People didn’t enjoy this because they like her upbeat, usually happy content. She shared about what medications she was taking to help, and people felt like she was bragging about it. When she was just trying to make people aware that even people with influencer or celebrity status struggle just like us.

Another thing that I find authentic about her content is the way she supports body positivity; she is of average weight (what the internet would consider plus size). She encourages people to love themselves and embrace the stretch marks, love handles and all the extra bits that make us feel self conscious.

As a thirty something average woman this is the type of stuff, I like to see on social media just people authentically living and being their true authentic selves. I am more apt to be persuaded by someone that is selling something that lives a life like mine (or what appears to be like mine) rather than a celebrity.

If this is something that you maybe interested in learning more out check out this article The Rise of Authentic Social Media, Explained (pivo.ai)

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Social Media Ads and Impulse Purchases

Are you a sucker for social media ads? Have they sucked you in and you bought the product?

I personally have, there was an ad for a swimsuit that came up, and it caught my eye, so I clicked the link. After some scrolling, I clicked the buy button. This could have had a negative result as I did absolutely no research into the company I was buying from. When I told my husband he gave me the “you know, that could have been a scam” chat. Luckily, all was good, but I am now a bit more cautious about what I buy and click on.

My situation could have ended very differently than it did. I have family members who have fallen victim to ads on Facebook and have ended up being scammed out of money. In my father in laws case, it was an ad for a generator, and he lost a couple hundred dollars.

Ads seem to pop up based on your search history and even what you have talked about around your phone. This can get people when you talk about something and than bam there is an ad for it. You click on the ad and its either all good or you are getting scammed.

Generally, if it seems too good to be true, it is.

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I found an interesting article related to this check it out How social media ads get us to click “buy” – Marketplace

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Has Meta banning News affected you?

How do you get your news? Do you watch or listen to news channels, or do you get most of it from social media (Facebook, Instagram, X etc.)?

With Meta blocking news on their platforms, it makes it much harder for people to get their news. This day in age many people do not have satellite or cable tv, they only have streaming services making in harder to get news.

Living in a small town I really relied on social media to get my local news, we do have a small local paper, but they are also ending the printing of some of these smaller news papers. Sure, I can google it, but when scrolling Facebook, it would just be there. I also do not really listen to the radio which would be a good way to get local news.

I can see how for many is smaller rural towns that with out news papers and no news on any Meta platforms that this would pose as an exceptionally large problem. We saw this firsthand with the forest fires this summer, people were unaware of when to evacuate and where they needed to go. I could not imagine the panic that those people must have been feeling.

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Also, with out notable news outlets being able to post on Meta, it allows for other less reputable outlets to post their news, and this gives way for “fake news” and even some conspiracy theories to become more mainstream and if its is on the internet a lot of people believe it to be true.

Here is the link to an article I found about the banning of news on Meta Canadians will no longer have access to news content on Facebook and Instagram, Meta says | CBC News

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Your mental health and social media

We are all guilty of endlessly scrolling social media, but what if it was having negative effects on your mental health. We see influencers or others we admire on social media looking like they have all the ducks in row but do they really? We may strive to achieve this false narrative ourselves often harming our own mental health along the way. All the things we see may cause us to start doubting our own self worth and decrease our self-esteem.

Social media is just as addictive as any drug. I witnessed this firsthand this spring when I went to an event where you had to lock up your phone for the duration of the show. People were going crazy not being able to look at the phones or post pictures of where they were (if it is not on Instagram were you even there?) We cannot seem to do anything with out documenting and posting it to social media. Ever been out to dinner with someone who must take a picture of their meal and maybe yours before you get to dig in. 

We believe that everyone on social media have the perfect life. Which can be damaging to us as “average joes”, we strive to be just like them in all aspects. When is reality they are just like us, they still put their pants on one legs at a time. As perfect as they seem on their socials, they still have the same problems as you and I. Even influencers and other prominent people on social media are trying to get us to see that their lives are not perfect, by showing us a more organic view of their lives with no filters just the real deal.

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How many of us are guilty of scrolling social media as soon as we wake up or, endlessly scrolling until the phone falls and hits us in the face as we are falling asleep?

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