As I have disclosed several times, I had adult ADHD. This impacts my interactions with social media in a few ways. See below if you want the whole list. For this post, only one trait is important (and hard to self-disclose). It is about reading.
I'm not a quick nor particularly effective reader. I often have to stop and process information or re-read, since my attention slipped off the page.
I'm not an effective collector and curator of readings.I prefer to read on paper, but have a, kindly put, ideosyncratic filing system that I often can't remember, and I usually lose the document before I file it anyway. And since I have printed it, I've lost the URL. And this is one reason I think Diigo is gonna be my new best friend.
There are many time management, note taking and other organizational apps that are quite helpful for neuroatypicals. They are not social media, but what I think of as support players. As they help with scheduling, focus and energy conservation they enable me to spend more productive time doing coursework.. in this case, exploring social media.
Regarding Diigo,
My first impression was to run away. Diigo appears quite chaotic, at least to me, when there are many topics being presented at one time. While I'm a great chaos generator (ask my husband!) chaotic environments are difficult for me.
However, as I started to play around with Diigo and learned more how to control my posts, I can see how it will be a real advantage to me in organizing information. Diigo's features that help everyone else will certainly help me, but the great thing is the ability to generate one's own tags. Folksonomy is fun, and fun helps me stay on engaged and on track.
Fun is, by the way, why almost all my posts are illustrated. Finding the right image is fun, if occasionally gratuitious.
Will I use Diigo as a form of social media, as a collaborative knowledge builder? I'm not sure. I'd be self-conscious about sharing it, since it is going to be as messy as Diigo will allow, but since it is MY mess, I should be able to navigate through it.
I'm sure I would also feel self-conscious about the paucity of notes I take per article. I understand my shorthand, but it won't look like much to others.
And, there are those tags. My tags! Don't want anyone messing with my tags!
So there you go.
In case you are interested...
My ADHD brain on social media
- I check out Twitter more than necesary if my impulse control is iffy, depending on if I'm a quart low on medication.
- Or, I forget to check my social media outlets for extended periods and my (fill in the blanks) think I have deserted them.
- I am easily frustrated and not particularly resilient. Hence my issues with Instagram.
- I get overwhelmed by visually crowded fields. As much as I love infographics, a Pintrist page full of them, and I react like Bela Lugosi confronted with a crucifix.
- I'm an impulsive commentor. Sometimes I comment when I don't have anything useful to say. (Although perhaps you welcome the dopamine jolt. I dunno.)
You might say that these are traits ones that anybody could have, and you would be correct. The problems come from the intensity these points manifest themselves, not that they exist. So there.
Image by Mohmed Hassan on Pixabay
