Social media has played such a significant role for so long that I rarely think about life before social media.
Perspective
When I stop and think about the arrival of social media – and the onset of my utilization of it – I recognize that I spent most of my life in a pre-social media world. I started using social media in my thirties.
In 2009, I entered the world of social media when I joined Facebook. Later that year I started this blog and joined Twitter. I added LinkedIn in 2011 and added Instagram in 2017.
Over the last few years I’ve been fairly consistent in my use of these platforms:
- Blog: 50-75 posts a year
- Twitter: 90-150 tweets a month
- Facebook: 3-10 posts a week on my personal account (1-2 a week on my ministry page)
- LinkedIn: more focused on interaction than content creation
- Instagram: 10-12 posts a year
Social Today
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started my overall use of social media has declined slightly. Blogging has increased slightly, tweeting has remained unchanged, and Facebook posting has declined significantly. My more targeted usage of LinkedIn and Instagram have been similar to pre-COVID levels.
So What?
While I am still working on site every day, I’m interacting with fewer people in person than normal (and even those interactions look quite different thanks to social distancing, masks, and other safety protocols). I take and share fewer pictures of my every day life and of ministry than I did prior to COVID-19. And, I try to engage more with content posted by others – especially those I know I’m unlikely to engage in person for the foreseeable future.
I’d welcome hearing a bit more about how your use of social media has and/or is changing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, if you also post for a ministry, how the ministry’s use of social has and/or is changing.
This post is part of the “In the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic” series:
- Teaching Sunday School in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Blogging in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Prayer in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Not Comfortable Returning to In Person Worship
- Should Churches Offer In Person Worship?
- The Coming Wave of Permanent Church Closures
- Church Identity in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- 40 New Online Worship Experiences
- Church Changes in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Easter Miracles: Empty Tomb, Empty Churches
- Worship In the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Life in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic