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Social Media Usage #poll-notice
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My experience with HLAA leads me to believe that HLAA membership literally may die off. Most of the chapters that I am familiar with have leadership primarily with retired people. They are all concerned about the age of their membership. There have been discussions on how to reach the working-age people. Social media may be an answer. I'm not the social media maven. By nature, I'm not a social person and force myself to try and do anything socially. My Facebook account has a picture of a pumpkin with an image of my brother's dog (now deceased) and a few posts about HLAA and CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). I have a Twitter account that I don't ever remember looking at, let alone tweet or retweet anything. But I am beginning to realize the importance social media may have as part of the future of HLAA and its chapters and towards that end am willing to dedicate time to learning about it.
How do you use social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)?
Thank you for voting. Results will be available when the poll is closed.
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Alan, I totally agree with you. If chapters don't start to include younger working adults and the parents of HOH children, they will fade away and never realize their full potential. I believe that HLAA has the ability to advocate for many more people of all ages. (Back in the day, as SHHH, I learned a lot that helped us with our son.)
For reference, some of the social media we try to keep updated here in South Florida:
https://www.facebook.com/HearingLossAssocPalmBeach/ https://www.facebook.com/HearingLossNPBC/
https://www.facebook.com/Loops4Hearing https://www.facebook.com/Telecoils/ https://www.facebook.com/2020HearingMatters
https://twitter.com/loops4hearing
https://twitter.com/HLAAPalmBeach
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Michelle Gross, HLAA Rochester
Although we as the "older set" may not be as big on the use of social media, those younger who are coming up usually are, as we all know. The issue to me, becomes more one of how much technology has played a part in improving our communication issues. Like Deaf people those of us with significant hearing loss enjoy personal interaction with each other. We have a mutual understanding of hearing loss and therefore enjoy the natural flow of our communication, without the additional stressors communicating with hearing people can inflict.
We probably agree that the good part of social media is the ease of using written/visual communication (text, captions, streaming) for "us", but of course the other side of the coin is the lack of intimacy that leaves a void that may not be appreciated by those who use social media almost exclusively. We all have read about that and it holds true for hearing people as well. In my opinion, being that HL occurs at any age but predominates in older age groups, our Organizational Marketing to an older group of people makes sense. As younger people with hearing loss become the "older group" and as technolgy/medical advancements occur, HLAA as an entity will either continue to fill a void or will fade as no longer being necessary. Of course that's a statement of the obvious but for now, like it or not, our focus remains on our largest demographic, "older people" who currently aren't the biggest group of social media users. The situation (continuation of HLAA) will take care of itself as it become more apparent if progress lessons the need for our Organization. We can move with the times but all our eggs don't need to be in the social media basket. It's important to offer what we can to the upcoming group of potential members but to me we need not be so consumed with drawing in younger people that we play short shrift to the needs of the majority of members/potential older members currently in our society. I see it as Room to live now and room to grow...Michelle |
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Judy G. Martin, FL <judygmartin@...>
Well said, Michelle. I agree with all of your thoughts whole-heartedly. I want to say, though, that “old” when I joined in 2006 is not really “old” any longer in that many more seniors are up to date with the use of social media.
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Judy G. Martin Founder and Past President, HLAA, Jacksonville Chapter 
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I was creating a post earlier this evening. I kept proofing it - Grammarly said it was okay, but she doesn't catch everything, and I remembered one reason why I didn't care for social media. You push that button, and everybody knows. They know you can't spell, put coherent thoughts together, get your facts correct - though that doesn't seem to faze some people. I entered a comment in a Zoom chat today, with its 5pt font, and I must have dragged my thumb across the touchpad. When the comment appeared in the Chat with my name at the top and not making any sense - well, it was too late to change my name.
Stay safe everyone -- Alan Katsura Moderator HLAA Tech Group |
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