16: Who's it for?

In today's emotion filled social media environment, we have to ask ourselves a few questions. First and foremost — who is it for? Meaning, of the information that is being shared, what message is trying to be sold and why. You may be familiar with this as the "narrative" and it may change based upon the social/political/economic view of your friends list and the algorithm that is shown to you through the social platforms. The next questions is the biggest one — Am I using social media or is social media using me? If you find yourself in the position of division driven, emotion filled responses with controversial headlines — you are probably being used by social media to help aid in the division. Here's the thing thought, if you can use a principle called ETA instead of EAT — you will be way ahead of everyone else from a health perspective. When you decide to let social media use you, you are following the principles of EAT — emotion, action, thought — meaning you are triggered by a post, you take immediate action without thinking, and then think about it when it is too late (I am super guilty of this over the last 3 months). The alternative, when you decided to use social media, requires more discipline and an acronym called ETA — emotional trigger, followed by thought, and then taking the responsible action. In order to save everyone and to instill community, I prefer to work hard at using ETA from this point forward when I engage social media. It all starts with asking yourself the questions — who is this post for and what is the reaction I want?