I can’t believe it, but this is officially Season 5 of the podcast! I know a few of you have been listening since the beginning, and I’d like to say a great big THANK YOU for the continued support and encouragement
A lot of you are also new. I have noticed a huge spike of downloads in the past few months, and that’s been really super exciting! Thank you all so much for joining me on this journey. It’s really encouraging and energizing when I see so many downloads and new subscribers. Also, a few of you have reached out to me to tell me that you’ve recommended my podcast to someone, and in my opinion, that is way better than me advertising my podcast on social media. Thank you for believing in me and for continuing to come back and for loving it enough to recommend it to someone else. In my personal opinion, word of mouth is truly the best advertisement there is.
Speaking of social media and advertising…Ha-Ha…Yeah… In my last episode, I made a reference to how I have been taking time to reflect and consider how I want to move forward with this podcast. There are things about doing this podcast that I love, and things that I really don’t love…like at all.
Some of the things I love about doing this podcast are writing, speaking, recording, releasing episodes, watching it grow, …of course… talking with my friends and fan-base… of course… and just basically all the things that make this podcast an actual podcast.
One of the things that I actually do not like about doing a podcast isn’t actually the thing that makes this podcast a podcast at all. It’s the social media side of podcasting. Aannndddd… I think we’re all getting a little tired of social media these days, and rightfully so.
The funny thing is, I mentioned in my last episode that I wanted to take a bit of a break with social media, and I think that recent events that have taken place since then have definitely confirmed that for me. We all have known what’s been going on for a long time now; however, we’ve still continued to use it, haven’t we?
I’ve had some of you tell me that you are absolutely DONE with it…especially after watching Social Dilemma on Netflix. As soon as I watched that show, my question was, “Did people REALLY not know that this was happening? Did it really take this show for people to see what is going on?”
I do know some who immediately deleted their Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter account after watching Social Dilemma, but they still continue to use Google and Google Maps, or Apple Maps, and YouTube, and order from Amazon. With super current events, I am guessing that people are now realizing that they are being tracked no matter what they use. Ditching their Facebook and other social media accounts seemed to be a knee-jerk reaction that they can’t undo. They can start over, but they can’t undo it.
I have other friends who are “on a break” with Facebook and also friends who have suspended their Facebook account – either temporarily or permanently.
All of that makes me sad in a few different ways. As if we weren’t already having to socially distance ourselves and stay home more, now you’ve done gone and deleted the only medium that has allowed us to all stick together; even if it is or was extremely frustrating. We don’t see each other enough to just completely cut the only lifeline we have with each other.
And, now that I’m on the subject… I have noticed a few unfriending going on as well. I have lost some friends due to unfriending, and that really breaks my heart. Especially when I don’t feel that I have done anything to deserve being unfriended. I really don’t think that I post anything that is offensive or controversial. In a few of the cases, I have been unfriended due to my association with other people who they have a quarrel with and it has absolutely nothing to do with me what-so-ever. Now! That is completely childish! There’s been a few times when I have noticed that I haven’t seen posts from someone in a while, and it’ll be someone who I had seen lots of posts from and even had adult conversations with in the past. I’ll go look them up to see if they are ok and how they’re doing, and I’ll notice that we are no longer even friends! I mean! WHAT THE HECK?!?
I’m like, are we seriously back in middle school, or what? Or, for me, it would probably be high school because that reminds me of something that actually happened to me in high school, and I guess brings up some negative feelings because I’m actually getting kinda mad about it right now, and it was more than 30 years ago!
I had a best friend whom we did everything together. For many years, we were literally inseparable. Then, one morning, I showed up for school as usual, and she wouldn’t even acknowledge me. She pretended that I wasn’t even there! It was like I was a ghost, and she could literally walk right through me. She suddenly treated me like I was invisible, and it all happened overnight. That was it! The complete and utter end of our friendship, and to this day, we have barely spoken since.
I tried and tried to find out what I had done or why she was no longer speaking to me, and to this day, I STILL have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what happened or why she just treated me like I no longer existed because she never even gave me an explanation. It would have been easier with an explanation, no matter what the reason was.
That was obviously extremely devastating to me! I still remember it like it was yesterday! I still remember how it felt; how hurt I was; how devastated I felt. It was awful, and I vowed to never treat anyone like that…EVER!
Even on social media… At the time, social media didn’t exist, but today, this is what we do. We just unfriend anyone and everyone we feel like, and never have to give an explanation. If we try to contact that person and ask for an explanation, we can get blocked or deemed a bully, just for asking for a reason.
I still tell the story about it, and I have shared that story with my kiddos in teaching them how to (or how not to) treat others. I teach them to set healthy boundaries with themselves and others but not to ever just turn their back on someone like that.
Unfortunately, adults on social media are not teaching our children the same lessons. They are teaching them that it’s ok to unfriend people; that it’s ok to run away and shun others when they don’t agree with you.
I have even seen fellow pastors of churches unfriend people. If there’s anyone who should never unfriend anyone, it’s a pastor. This pastor didn’t like the other person’s religious views, so he just unfriended them on Facebook. I mean, isn’t that kinda the point of being a pastor? To LEAD people into a GROWING relationship with Christ? I mean, if that’s not what you’re doing, then what’s the point of what you do? And, if you can only be friends with people who view God the same exact way that you do, then I ask again…what’s the point of you? Who would you be leading if the only people you surround yourself with are people who think just like you?
All it did was cause chaos and tension, which is exactly the opposite of what Jesus teaches we should do; especially with each other.
Anyway…enough of my rant… Let’s get back to the podcast… We may need to visit that social media topic a bit more on a later episode. I’ll have to ponder on that for a bit.
So, when we started this podcast back in 2017, we also started up a few social media pages and profiles to go along with it, and that’s the biggest thing I don’t like about doing a podcast, so I’ve kinda been questioning myself as to why I actually have and post to those pages at all.
Are those social media posts really what leads you to listen to each episode, or is it the reminder that you have a new episode waiting for you when you log onto your podcasting app? How do you usually listen to this podcast? Do you listen through an app or do you listen by clicking through social media and getting to my website? And, if you do listen through an app, what app do you use? Leave me a comment and let me know.
I don’t have much interaction on my social media pages. I can look at it and see how many, and sometimes who, have seen my post, and to that point… who and how many never actually reacted to it, and those totals are nowhere near the number of people who have “liked” or “followed” my page or even listened to or downloaded episodes. I have noticed that Facebook tends to stump the posts that have outside links attached to them. In fact, they are stumping a lot of posts lately, aren’t they?
I have heard many people complain about that too because their site links are being blocked, or filtered as well, and people aren’t seeing them.
My actual website shows me how many people visit my site and where they have come from. Most of the clicks that I get on my website are not from social media sites, and most of the conversations that I have regarding my podcast are also not on social media sites.
Like I was saying before, so many of you are not even on social media these days.
I would love to just write and publish podcasts without the pressures of posting to social media as well. I’ve not been posting to Facebook much lately, and I’ve been watching my stats, and I am still growing like crazy in spite of…in spite of my not posting to social media, and in spite of my not having released an episode in a short while.
Other than my battle with social media, I love podcasting! I have so much that I wanna share with you on this podcast, and when I say SO MUCH, I mean I have a list of topics that would cover an entire year or more!
Admittedly, It can be a bit lonely doing this all alone these days. It’s hard to chat alone, hoping you guys stay engaged at the same time. It’s way more fun when I have someone to converse with on the show. I am working on getting my husband on the show more, so hopefully, I can start doing that more as well.
Also, when I have too much time alone to think about this, I start to wonder who am I to tell you all the things? I mean, what makes me qualified to share these things with you? I want to help encourage you, and sometimes I feel like that’s all I have. Maybe it’s enough. Maybe it’s not. Please bear with me as I work through all my insecurities right here in front of you.
But, I appreciate each and every one of you who have continually encouraged me to keep on keeping on with this podcast. Thank you for helping me fight through the lows and celebrating with me during the highs, and thank you for sharing this podcast with others. It’s because of you that I am growing, and I am thankful for each and every one of you!
So, basically, from here going forward, I am not going to post to Instagram. I will post to my Podcast Page and my Community Group Page until I figure out which one of those I need to keep. Neither one is private, so anyone and everyone can find both. If you have any suggestions or ideas or preferences on that, please share it with me as I am looking for reasons favoring either.
I believe that my Facebook Community Group is open to anyone posting on it, so feel free to do so. If you have any comments or questions regarding this podcast, please feel free to post and share in my Community Group. You can start some discussion there if that’s what you’d like because I probably won’t – at least for a while anyway.
