20 Days of Chill / Ultimate Blog Challenge - Let's get social

Welcome back to 20 Days of Chill, today's prompt is

Let's get social

Isn't this what us bloggers have been doing all along this month?

How convenient is this, the assignment for today's Ultimate Blog Challenge is

Share what you have found - in terms of blogs of our fellow writing challenge heroes.

What's more, this popped up in my Facebook Memories just this morning. Remember the Dolly Parton Challenge two years ago?

Let me start by sharing ten of my blog buddies' links, as always, in alphabetical order:

Dominique @ Rebooted Mom participates in a Positivity Challenge and shares her insight. One day she'll ask us some tough questions that prompt us to reflect about ourselves - which I did. Other days we'll get a delicious treat like peanut butter brownies. 

Elisa @ Life without Manual keeps it real around here. While she is very particular about her opinion on the Oxford Comma, she knows when to let it go and declare a day off because writer's block. Nothing a glass of wine couldn't fix though!

Jennifer @ Shepherds Run Farm shares her life on said farm. They were recently affected by a power outage, which didn't prevent her, however, from making it a special day, firing up her wood stove and enjoying the peace and quiet. For her vintage upside down pineapple cake she used a skillet though. 

Laurie (and Greg) @ Ridgehaven Homestead share the coolest tricks. One post was about a complete makeover in order to organize the limited space in her camper. Did you know the best way to stir natural peanut butter? Or have you thought about good reasons to have a wood stove? Read her blog! She also hosts the Sunday Sunshine Blog Hop if you're up for it!

Lily @ One Thousand and Two: lives in Canada and pushes herself to cross country ski every day. While I feel for her when the temperatures drop below human, I do love her snow pictures. Snow and blue sky, I may add. For a creative change, she's also taking up water cooler painting, and it's coming along nicely. 

Martha @ The Martha Review: She and her great granddaughter Lia, along with cute doggie Snowball enrich our everyday life with grocery shopping, cooking and baking tips. Yesterday's prompt was to come up with a theme song for our life and / or blog, and of course "You're my Sunshine" is what she picked for Lia. Very appropriate!

Paul @ It's all about Gratitude is the host of the Ultimate Blog Challenge writing challenge I'm doing in parallel to the 20 Days of Chill. His posts are a reminder of how many things we may be grateful for - and ways on how to express them. 

P.J. @ A'lil HooHaa is the host of the 20 Days of Chill writing challenge I'm doing in parallel to the Ultimate Blog Challenge. He came up with 20 prompts for every weekday of this month, and you will find that he covers a broad spectrum from blogging, his puppy, social media and everyday life topics. 

Roy @ Adjuvancy: His blog is super versatile, and he shares his knowledge about economy, medicine and life. Just yesterday we were reminded to pay each other a compliment, not only in observance of "national compliment day" but as a general appreciative attitude. 

Samantha @ Golden Age Traveling is going places! Not surprising, considering the name of her blog. Some of her trips took her to the Niagara Falls or a less known place called Mount Angel, Oregon. What's there? A Bavarian town! If you've ever wanted to attend Oktoberfest but can't fly to Germany, this seems to be the place to go!

Victoria @ Victoria Juster is a psychic medium (I hope I said that right?) and shares some of her patients' experiences, like the guy who likes his routine, always drives the same route at the same weekday and time to have his hair cut, except the one day he listened to his intuition and didn't. Good thing, it saved his life. Just the other day she described how weddings may cause stress and disagreement within families. 

So blogging and connecting with my fellow participants has been going great for me this month. 

I have to say though, over time my enthusiasm for social media in general has waned for the following reasons:

They're a gigantic time thief. It's not that I didn't know that from the beginning, but once you open that Facebook app, you keep scrolling, liking and commenting, and before you know it, half an hour or more is over.

While I made great online friends, some of whom I actually met in real life, most connections are superficial. Social media are a wonderful means to keep in touch and see what people are up to: vacation, job, new home, kids, grandkids, but you barely ever talk.

Of course the way people present themselves is embellished. Sometimes it's downright ridiculous. If you know these folks in person, you will know what's really going on in their lives, and all you can do is shake your head and feel sorry for them.

The decency and the tone in Facebook Groups leave a lot to be desired. Just because you're not facing the person doesn't mean you shouldn't be respectful.

There are certain types of people who annoy me on social media: Attention seekers who will post dramatic statements. Friends will be worried and ask what's going on - there will be no explanation. Then there's the ones who have no clue but a lot of opinion, and finally those who keep asking for votes and shares and sh** but will never reciprocate favors.

That being said - Let's keep in touch, hahaha!

• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• BLOGLOVIN'
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn

Since Colin tested positive, we're doing the quarantine thing. I went from "sitting in the living room chair with my notebook on my lap" to this:

Too many cables, but I'm pretty pleased otherwise. Can't wait to get to my break room...

...where I have my very own Bearista waiting for me.

How about you? Apart from being a blogger, are you active on social media? Do you have a favorite? If you'd like to connect please use the links I provided above!