Susan's Place Logo

News:

According to Google Analytics 25,259,719 users made visits accounting for 140,758,117 Pageviews since December 2006

Main Menu

Social Media

Started by Flair, May 01, 2018, 11:00:34 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Flair

Hello again everyone!

I've been away for a while - in fact, since about when I started transitioning almost two months ago (Which is going fabulously!).  I've been slowly letting more and more people in my life know what's going on, and so far I've yet to have a negative or awkward experience, which I'm incredibly thankful for.  But that said, there are still alot of people that don't know - too many to go through one on one, especially since I don't always see all of them anymore.  And this all sort of got me thinking about Social Media.

With the world the way it is, we basically all have a Twitter or a facebook, or Instagram or whatever!  At some point, I've realized, all of that will need to change with me as well, and so I guess I got curious:

How did everyone deal with Social media as them came out / transitioned?  Did you make some sort of post or statement announcing it to everyone of your friends/followers?  Or did you just slowly let it change with you and dealt with questions from people as they arose?  Or did you do something else entirely?

In the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn't really matter.  But like I said, I was really just curious how others handled things.
  •  

sarah1972

After coming out, I did change everything except Facebook. LinkedIn and Xing on the professional side, Twitter on the personal.

Both of the professional networks have the option to notify your contacts if you make changes or upload a profile picture. On LinkedIn I decided not to send out a notification. On Xing, I overlooked the option to disable notifications. I did get a bunch of very positive messages.

I only have 15 Twitter followers, so it did not matter what I do.

For Facebook, I am planning a short post explaining what will happen as well as a photo album of my transition once the day comes.

Good luck with your coming out!

Hugs - Sarah

Quote from: Flair on May 01, 2018, 11:00:34 PM
Hello again everyone!

I've been away for a while - in fact, since about when I started transitioning almost two months ago (Which is going fabulously!).  I've been slowly letting more and more people in my life know what's going on, and so far I've yet to have a negative or awkward experience, which I'm incredibly thankful for.  But that said, there are still alot of people that don't know - too many to go through one on one, especially since I don't always see all of them anymore.  And this all sort of got me thinking about Social Media.

With the world the way it is, we basically all have a Twitter or a facebook, or Instagram or whatever!  At some point, I've realized, all of that will need to change with me as well, and so I guess I got curious:

How did everyone deal with Social media as them came out / transitioned?  Did you make some sort of post or statement announcing it to everyone of your friends/followers?  Or did you just slowly let it change with you and dealt with questions from people as they arose?  Or did you do something else entirely?

In the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn't really matter.  But like I said, I was really just curious how others handled things.

  •  

RobynTx

I only have Facebook so that was the only platform I used to make my announcement. Once I had told everyone that I wanted to be informed beforehand I just made a simple post on Facebook.  I told everyone that I was doing some spring cleaning of my friend's list.  I said that I was transgender and once I figured out how to change my name I would be doing so.  If anyone had an issue with it they can unfriend me right now.  So after that was made I had a huge outpouring of support.  I'm not for certain if anyone unfriended me because of it.  I did have several new people send me a friend request.  So to this day I'm Robyn on Facebook and I don't hide it.  I haven't posted anything else transgender on my account either.  I don't have a good reason for this either. 

What's funny is several months before I came out I changed my gender to female.  Only a few people here and there noticed and said something.  My excuse was that Facebook must have screwed something up.


  •  

Kylo

Honestly don't use social media much. I'm uncomfortable sharing a lot with family members and acquaintances on things like Facebook and Twitter is awful in general, especially these days where all your personal data is being collected by who knows who or what organization. But I'm semi-forced to use them if I want to keep in touch with certain friends because that's all they will use.

I never use my real name/profile image on Facebook or on any social media platform, I use pseudonyms and they all know it's me in my circle because I'm the only one who does. I don't publicly post pictures of myself or my dinner etc. and I only have a small collection of 60 or so friends who know me in some way well enough that they were not likely to get in a huff about any "revelations". So it was easy. I didn't make a big announcement. I hate doing that. It came out in a conversation someone was already having about trans people in which I just alluded to the fact I was one of them, and nobody made a big deal of it. I had a few conversations after about it privately but nobody "unfriended" me because they all actually are real friends whose personalities I can deal with.

I know a few people who just never use Facebook, I wouldn't say you have to use it, or feel pressured to add everyone who asks. I've literally only got people I'm comfortable with on there and not family members for the sake of it. There's are a few family members like my younger brother and sister but they aren't on it 24/7 anyway, and if you tell people you are they have this expectation you'll be on there all the time I suppose. I have contempt for the platform really, its abuse of people's data, the way it seems to make people miserable because all they think they are seeing is other people's "perfect" lives, addiction to likes, etc. but as a means of quick/emergency communication it's all right.

I just remembered I'd been using male avatars for pretty much the entire time I've been on Facebook, and a grand total of 1 person clocked the gender pronoun change when I flipped it on Facebook or felt curious enough to bring it up and ask about it. The rest figured it out or saw that conversation in which I "came out", although as disclosures go it was pretty subtle, practically an afterthought. I preferred to make it so subtle I can watch how other people figure it out on their own, if at all, and how savvy they are. By not demanding anything of them or making a big show I think they took it all great. I think they probably expected I would want to announce it and I never really did. 
"If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."
  •  

KathyLauren

For a while, while I was still partly in the closet, I had two Facebook accounts, one for him, and a temporary one for me.

When it came time to come out, I made a post on my old (i.e. "his" account, my permanent one) and then changed my name there.  I then closed my temporary one.  That way, my history and friends followed me automatically.
2015-07-04 Awakening; 2015-11-15 Out to self; 2016-06-22 Out to wife; 2016-10-27 First time presenting in public; 2017-01-20 Started HRT!!; 2017-04-20 Out publicly; 2017-07-10 Legal name change; 2019-02-15 Approval for GRS; 2019-08-02 Official gender change; 2020-03-11 GRS; 2020-09-17 New birth certificate
  •