Social Media - a tool for good or evil?

Gym taut girls in tiny bikinis, sipping bellinis by a crystal blue sea. Impeccable 4 bedroom homes with everything in it's place, so much kitchen space & stunning Emma Bridgewater tableware. The perfect contour for a night out on the town, eyebrows on fleek, bronzer on your cheeks... You get the picture (by the way if you say the first paragraph out loud & you say it in rhythm it should sound like a rap - JayZ eat your heart out. Although the very fact that I've had to tell you that's what it is, isn't promising is it? 😳I'll stick to singing) We are constantly bombarded, dare I say harangued by very carefully curated images via our social media & so much of it is unhelpful. We should by know by now to take it with a pinch of salt, barely anything is what is seems. Most accounts on Instagram have created a brand & everything must fit within the remit of said brand, lest they lose followers. By the way, a little aside... can anyone explain to me the finer points of the Instagram algorithm? I post consistently, my content & images have a theme and yet I can receive a notification informing me that I have 3 new followers but my numbers have actually gone down. Meaning that 3 new people have followed me, but more than that have unfollowed. Huh? Genuinely don't get it. Anyway back to the point... I fear for the time that my kids begin to ask to be on social media. What will their influences be? Who will they be listening to? However, recently and this week in particular- everytime that I've come off twitter and Instagram to live my actual life (I know, real life huh? Who'dve thunk it?) I've been left with a warm glowy feeling. I've seen humorous, honest captions about life with children. Chaotic instastories that echo the madness in my own life. I've seen mum's reaching out to other mums who are struggling with something and I've had brilliant exchanges with some really kick ass women. You see, I had a bit of a revelation (always late to the party). I finally realised that it was time to follow accounts that made me smile or encouraged me or challenged me. And to ditch the ones that made me feel inadequate, fat & poor. I had a cull and it felt INCREDIBLE. I now follow people that make me want to leave positive comments on their pictures and this in turn has opened up brilliant conversations for me. To name just 3 of many within the last couple of days, I've met @dear.younger.self @todayiprimed and @doingitforthekids_ By "met", I mean that I left a comment on their account and they've reached out to me and returned messages that have really touched me & made me feel good about myself. And you know what? Here's a revelation - THAT'S A GOOD THING. You should feel good about yourself, you should leave Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeling encouraged. If you don't, then it's time to cull. Twitter is a funny one isn't it? With only 140 characters you can do so much good but also so much bad! This week I stumbled upon a thread that will make even the hardest heart crack just a little. Ollie is turning 9 in a couple of days and is struggling with a bully at school. The unnamed bully is constantly saying that he has everything bigger, better and faster than Ollie does. So Ollie's dad sent out a tweet asking if anyone famous would send him a birthday message, just to cheer him up a bit. The response that came in was beautiful & overwhelming. In a period of time when we are consistently waking up to horror stories of what one human will do to another, we see here human nature at it's very, very best. I saw offers of free meals out for his family, days at the football, as many X box games as a 9 year old could possibly handle... Actors, tv presenters, sports stars, radio djs, newsreaders, Ellen deGeneres, Arnie (can't spell Schwarz etc, so let's just call him Arnie) Russell Crowe- all of them taking time out of their day to reach out. So beautiful. So touching. Kudos to Ollie's dad who you could tell, began to panic slightly as this innocent tweet gained traction and went viral right before his eyes. This is the power of social media and it's good, so good! Some of my other fave grammers that deserve honourable mention are @susiejverrill for her hilarity and beautiful, brutal honesty (her stories are a delight), vlogger/blogger @brummymummyof2 she's an hysterical, honest, fellow Brummy lass. Her contouring/mumtouring YouTube vid is one of the best, @carolinehirons a beauty blogger/vlogger with real working knowledge of the beauty industry - also pant wettingly funny in her instastories! And finally @allthatisshe for the most stunningly curated family photos. Give em a follow! In order to keep myself blogging on the regular, I've decided to summarise the past week, every week. So that even if I have no great blogging subject, I can at least précis the events of the last 7 days. Also it serves as a nice reminder/time hop thingy & as my dad says "I've no idea what you do or where you are" - now you'll know! This week's noteables are: Weather rubbish and rainy. This was the week that our House Rabbit turned into a dog. He's starting to follow myself or the kids EVERYWHERE. Right on our heels and he sits by the door waiting until we come home. 

Sports Day on Tuesday. Fave moments include Archie coming dead last in the egg & spoon race, he kept dropping it but he NEVER gave up! Even as the next race was on their starting blocks ready to go 😂. Coco concluding the egg & spoon race with a high five to the High School student at the finish line, but instead of a normal high five Coco got confused and whacked her in the eye with the spoon! 🤦🏾‍♀️ Betsy-Luz was confident and self assured in front of the crowd. She won all of her races. Dave's been super busy working with Worship Central this week, so was leaving before we were awake & getting back after we were all asleep. So, I couldn't go to my early morning gym classes & just couldn't get my mojo to workout at home. So we just had to eat really well, this week. Took Betsy-Luz to Dudley Zoo on Thursday it rained ALL DAY, our days off together are numbered as she's off to reception in Sept. 

Finally - For those of you who aren't aware, my mum's been ill for a while & has been in a nursing home for the past year or so. Last weekend she took a turn for the worse & it looks as though she's in her final days. It's been a long time coming & my dad is utterly exhausted. Those of you inclined to pray, pls pray for peace & relief for both of them. You made it to the end! High Five. 

Plumb. Out!