Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

I’ve been added to about seven different Facebook groups lately (no, wait– it’s actually eight). All are diabetes or health care advocacy related. Is it me, or is this becoming a thing?

Sometimes, it’s because I’m attending or have attended a conference, and the organizers created a FB group for it. Others have been due to something common that the group’s creator wants to share and have shared within their group.

When I’m added to a group, I get a little imposter syndrome, like I do with nearly everything else. Why do they want me in their group? But I get over it kinda quickly. Then I’m left with: do I participate, lurk, or ignore it altogether?

I’m a Facebook user and have been for years, but I think it’s safe to say that I consume a lot more content than I produce. So already, I’m mostly on the lurking side.

Not that I’m shy online. But I’m careful about my online (and offline) reputation, and that makes me careful about saturating the internet with things that I might be embarrassed about sharing in years to come. So I err on the side of caution.

Plus, I look at FB groups with the same lens as I look at individual FB users… all of them are different. They have different focuses, and they appeal to different constituencies. Nothing wrong with that. I see that as something that makes the overall Facebook community better.

But when I consider posting to a FB group, I take into account the things that make that group unique. And with so many different groups covering so many different topics, I feel like posting to each one would mean I’d have to turn on a different personality each time I post to another group’s feed. That’s a lot of work for something that’s supposed to be fun. I just want to be me… be authentic.

I also have to manage my settings, every time I’m added to a group. Do I want notifications? Which notifications? Do I want to add the group as a favorite? Do I want to leave the group entirely? That’s extra work too.

I like being a part of these groups. I want to hear what people have to say about a topic. Sometimes I learn something new. It’s always worth hearing another perspective on something that I have in common with the users in these groups. Once in a while, I have something important to say too.

However, I have a high regard for people, individual people that I can have a one-on-one connection with. And when half of my personal FB feed contains posts from users, and half are from groups, I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the Facebook Group phenomenon has reached its zenith (a zenith is a peak– really, I just wanted to use the words hyperbole and zenith in the same sentence). Or I need some new Facebook friends. Recommendations are welcome.

Nevertheless, keep creating those Facebook groups, people. It may not seem like I’m there all the time, but I’ll be reading. Good luck.