About two and a half years ago I quit social media.
All of it, with the exception of mastodon which seemed to be full of people interested in digitisation and trains, which kind of fits with my interests, sad anorak that I am.
Facebook, linkdin, tumblr, twitter (now X), Instagram, Pinterest etc all went. I reckoned that during the pandemic I'd developed a doomscrolling habit, especially when we were all locked down and the highlight of the day was a walk to the Post Office to collect a package.
Prior to the pandemic, I'd have said I had my use under control, Sure, I was a bit obsessed with twitter, but that was it apart from a little bit of Facebook.
Before I retired, something I used to do was evaluate social media platforms as to their usefulness for learning and communication, but I hardly ever used them - the ultimate was when someone sent me a 'happy birthday' message on Facebook, and when I read it, it was nine months later - I hadn't logged in for nearly a year.
After I retired I started to use Facebook a little more, purely because in a rural area, the local Facebook groups serve as a sort of town hall meeting cum noticeboard.
And as I say, it was all good until the pandemic, when I started spending too much time on the socials - you can only make so many sourdough pizzas, and do so much family history, so locked down, the socials served the important function of reminding me there was still life elsewhere on the planet.
But unfortunately the habit stayed with me, so I ditched the lot and had a clean break, and felt a lot happier for doing so.
So why did I rejoin Facebook?
I could claim it's the Athenaeum's fault, but that would be unfair. A lot of local history groups and local archive services have very active Facebook groups, and Facebook was the way to find out what other groups in the region were doing.
So, I rejoined.
Purposely I went for a cold restart, no recontacting previous friends, no reviving previous group memberships.
I did feel a bit bad about not recontacting previous friends, but people move on and life changes. I'd walked away and somehow it felt a bit presumptuous to do a 'Hi, I'm back', so I didn't.
So, for nearly a month now I've been back on Facebook.
No friends other than J, and a feed stuffed full of local history groups and regional archive services.
I have a couple of rules - no app on my phone, browser access only, and some set times to check it for updates, basically first thing in the morning and after I've fed the cats in the evening.
And it's been useful.
I'd been having trouble tracking down any information about a circulating library in Ryde in the 1870s.
I'd tried emailing the local museum, but hadn't received an answer, so I tried posting on a local Facebook history group.
And it worked, I got a contact address for the local history group, and some really helpful suggestions based on the census returns and local trade directories, as well as a few silly ones.
But it worked, and I now know there was definitely at least two circulating libraries on Union Street in Ryde in the mid to late nineteenth century.
Which one the book came from, I don't know - the label is too damaged, and the only way is find another label in better condition, but I suspect it might have come from the one at 33 Union Street run by Mary and Elizabeth Gibbs
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