Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram For Seniors For Dummies

General Social Media Articles

How To Change Your Twitter Privacy Settings

On the left side of the Twitter Account page, you’ll notice lots of links. Each one of those links has settings that can improve the time you spend on the Twitter platform. Here’s a short overview of some of what you can set in Twitter.

• Privacy and Safety is the best area for being sure you have a pleasant time on Twitter. Here you can make decisions as to how much contact you want from Twitter and from those with whom you connect on the site. Just be sure to read anything you are agreeing to before you give permission. Here’s a few things to consider:
  • Don’t protect your Tweets; this makes them visible only to those whom you follow. If you set this, someone (perhaps an old friend) will find you through search, but can’t see what you’re sharing. People get to know you and about you by reading your Tweets.
  • Twitter is a public forum, so be careful what you say (or are willing to defend or argue). Never post anything on Twitter that you wouldn’t want to see printed in your local newspaper. More than one celebrity has done this at one time or another and regretted it. You can delete Tweets, but they stay in the public timeline from the time you post until the time you delete them, and someone might take a screen shot.

• Why add a location to your Tweets? Unless you want the public to know every place you are, leave this option blank.
• Address book. Address books are tricky if you want to keep your contacts private. If you uploaded every contact you have, you might find some on Twitter and compromise your friends’ privacy.
• Direct Messages are private messages that you access in a different area from the public timeline. There’s a lot of strangers out there. You can opt to receive Direct Messages from anyone or not.
• Send/Receive read receipts. If you read a private, Direct Message and choose not to respond, it could be considered a breach of etiquette. So you turn this option off and answer messages in your own time.
• The Safety area. This covers sensitive content and Tweet media settings, which allow you to label your media for the appropriate viewers, and select whose media appears on your Twitter home page. If you prefer not to see possibly offensive images, leave Display Media That May Contain Sensitive Content unselected. If you plan on posting some racy pictures, select the Mark my Media as Containing Sensitive Content check box — to protect the innocent.

A most important Twitter setting

Buried subtly below the very prominent Manage Your Contacts bar is an innocent-looking category called Personalization and Data. There’s no free lunch on the Internet. If you followed any of the very public brou-ha-ha over the Facebook Cambridge Analytics scandal, this is where those permissions can leave you open. Next to the bold phrase Allow Some, click the word Edit. The page that opens here transparently shows you where and how your data might be shared. (This advice is relevant on other platforms as well.)

• Personalized Ads. This means that the ads you see on Twitter would be based on your interests. Twitter knows your interests because of the words you share on the platform. For example, if you talk about dogs, you might see pet food ads; talk about a garden and you could see ads from florists or gardening suppliers; talk about politicians and you may see political ads. Get it? You can opt in or not right here.
• Personalize based on your devices. This option gets a bit trickier. When you’re on Twitter, they obviously can see what you comment on and how you feel about things. Know this about your devices, this is one thing you can’t control: Every browser or app you use on any device accesses the web via its own IP address set by the Internet provider. The IP address doesn’t expose you personally, but it would indicate that, say, someone from Atlanta, Georgia is visiting a website at a certain time, on an iPhone using the iOS operating system (and what version). What you can control with this setting is whether you give Twitter permission to follow you around the web for further information on your interests.
• Personalize on the places you’ve been. This permission allows Twitter to serve you ads that may be relevant when you are away from home. This can be a good thing when you’re traveling, like getting an ad from a local restaurant. Remember that because when you are on a mobile device, websites can tell where you are anyway.
• Track where you see Twitter content across the web. Data (not personalized — meaning they don’t know your name, Twitter ID, email address, or phone number) will be used when you browse the Internet to serve up ads on websites that match your interests.
• Share your data with Twitter’s business partners. This generally means they sell. (A business needs to make money, right?) Twitter might “share” device-level data (like that IP address), demographics about you, your interests, and what ads you’ve viewed (and/or taken action on). Again, as in the paragraph prior, your actual personal information will not be “shared.”

Revisit these permissions occasionally on all platforms to see what changes have been made and keep up on any changes in Twitter Privacy.

General Social Media Articles

A Beginner’s Guide to Internet Slang for Social Media

The Internet, especially social media, has some mysterious words of its own that are not always understood by those over 30. Understanding (and using) these acronyms may help you chip away at a possible bias. Plus, it’s an eye-opener when you understand the secret (ever-changing) language of internet slang kids use today. These internet slang terms are for intermittent usage; don’t use them too often or you’ll be deemed uncool. It would be easy to list a hundred, but for brevity’s sake, here are some favorite Internet slang phrases.

• AMA: Ask Me Anything. This started on a website called Reddit, where an authority on a subject takes open questions.
• BAE: Before Anything Else. This acronym is generally used when referring to one’s sweetie or dear one.
• DM: Direct Message (also PM = Private Message). The default way to give permission for someone to message you in private.
• ELI5: Explain Like I’m 5. When you want a simple, short explanation of something.
• Epic: An adjective to describe anything huge or amazing.
• Facepalm: Reaction when someone says or does something incredibly stupid.
• ICYMI: In Case You Missed It. When you mention something that you think most people already know or you have said it before. Manners count.
• IMHO: In my humble opinion. Use when you’re trying to put across a point, but you don’t want to be pushy about it.
• IRL: In Real Life. Real life versus Internet life.
• JSYK: Just So You Know. This is the new way of writing FYI.
• Lulz: For the laughs. A derivative of the longstanding LOL (Laughing Out Loud), meaning you did something just for fun.
• Lurker: Someone who follows a chat or a forum but never comments. (This is a perfectly acceptable practice.)
• Meme: Superimposing a snarky comment (or captioning an image) on a photo. I would show you a screen shot, but they are generally NSFW. You can make your own memes with this meme generator.
• NSFW: Not Safe For Work. Anything marked NSFW should not be viewed on a big screen in a public environment.
• Photobomb: When someone (human or animal) unexpectedly appears in a photo. Like when your cousin Larry jumped in between you and your Bae while taking a selfie.
• PWNED: When you’ve been PWNED, you’ve been defeated or humiliated and your opponent has victory over you. Also used as a noun: PWNAGE.
• SMH: Shaking my Head. Conveys disappointment in something someone does or says.
• TBT: Throwback Thursday. When you want to share something from the past, do it on a Thursday and tag it #TBT.
• TL;DR: Too Long; Didn’t Read. If you share an article that seems really valuable, but it went into minute detail, you might not have time to read the entire thing. Mark your comment TL;DR.
• TROLL: Trolls are people who post to annoy or anger you. They can be terribly annoying. The best advice I have is, “Don’t feed the trolls.” Just block them and move forward.
• Well played: A response when someone does something particularly well.
• YOLO: You Only Live Once. Your excuse to do something incredibly wacky.

There are many Internet slang dictionaries on the web, but view at your own risk (just for lulz).

General Social Media Articles

Managing Your Instagram’s Privacy Settings

There are many Instagram Privacy settings provided for your benefit. You can edit your Instagram privacy on a desktop or mobile app. Here, you see images for editing them on the Instagram mobile app. The examples you see here use the Android app (which isn’t very different from the iOS version). The icons appear at the bottom of the screen.

To activate (or deactivate) an Instagram setting on your mobile device, tap the slide bar to either be grayed out (Off) or blue (On).

1. Tap the three horizontal lines at the top of the screen to get to your Instagram account settings.
2. The page slides aside. At the very bottom of the resulting page you’ll see a cog next to the word Settings. Tap the word Settings and Instagram’s Settings page will appear.
3. There’s a plethora of Instagram settings to go over, so let’s check out some of the most important.
   • Private Account: If you like to meet new people and see their photos, you may not want to set your Instagram account to private.

     Don’t follow a private account of someone you don’t know. That’s one important way to stay safe and avoid fraud online.

   • Show Activity Status: If you’d like to see which of your friends are online at any moment, turn this on. I do not have this setting turned on because I like to browse Instagram at odd hours and don’t want to be disturbed by direct messages.
   • Photos and Videos of You: If someone posts a photo or video with you in it, they can tag the image with your username. If you’d rather be able to approve these images before they appear with your tag, don’t allow automatic tags.
   • Link Social Accounts: To share your posts on Facebook or Twitter, you need to give Instagram permission to integrate with your social accounts.Click each of your social media accounts and follow the prompts to connect them.
   • Two-Factor Authentication: This is important for every app you own. If you (or someone else) attempts to log into your Instagram account from a device that is not known to the platform, a code is texted to your smartphone. Instagram requires you to type in that login code in order to access your account.
   • Story Controls: Decide if you want anyone to be able to use your posts in their stories
   • Contacts Syncing: This gives Instagram access to all the contacts from your phone and gives permission for them to periodically sync them and store them on their servers.
   • Notifications: If you want to be notified any time someone likes or follows you, Instagram will notify you. Be sure to go through the list of actions so that you can selectively decide on which ones you want to be notified. Instagram can notify you in three ways:
     • Push notifications: This means your phone will directly get a notification through a popup or sound. You do not have to be active in the app to get a Push notification.
     • SMS: This is an acronym for Short Message Service (or what we all call texts) that are sent direct to your phone.
     • Email: You give Instagram permission to send you an email when the action occurs on your account.

Having a private Instagram account

You have the option of setting your account as Private. This setting means that folks who know you’re on Instagram can find you by your ID, but must request permission to view (or follow in social parlance) your photostream. This means that only people you’ve approved to Follow will see your posts on the site. This is an important tool for those who need to keep a tight rein on their privacy (and their children’s).

Being on a social platform means participating. If your account is private, you can’t find friends from back in the day; you also won’t have the breadth of photos to look at.

When your Instagram account is private, most people on the site won’t know you are there and those you follow may not follow you back. Social media is about sharing, commenting, and liking. It’s way more fun to be able to participate fully on the site.