*
LAUREN S LOWDOWN
book
e
FacAvoid typical updates and seek the quirky
instead. When talking to your friends using
Facebook, avoid the dull details that you’d
never share face to face. Knowing your daily
movements (interpret that however you like)
and your boredom quotient isn’t fascinating
to anyone and it’s definitely not cool. Instead,
look for ways to say interesting, different
and quirky things that will cause your friends
to want to read more. For example, if you
discover a friend likes the same band as you,
say something like: “Hey I love (blah) too! Do
you have their new album?” and then go on to
talk about how you were listening to their track
when you accidentally dropped a wedding
cake on your uncle’s dog or something
equally unusual and funny. Seek always
to inject good humor into your Facebook
interactions.
* Change your status about once every two days. Clear it when you haven’t done anything
interesting recently, rather than posting “Kate has just eaten a sandwich.” Keep your post
vague, so that all the mystery of your regular life is not revealed immediately.
Tweet well and tweet often.
Selective followers will also
glance at your most recent
tweets to see if you’re worth
following. You should have a
minimum of one post per day
and ideally two posts per day
to maximize your account.
Make sure you’re tweeting on
a variety of subjects and not
just your personal thoughts
or what you’re doing at the
moment. Talk about your
hobbies and interests, share
a piece of insightful advice
or post a photo of something
cool to switch it up.
find buzzworthy stories for
him to tweet. There are many
and provocative. Share
websites you can scour for
intimate news about your life.
prime Tweeting material.
* Be interesting, transparent
*
Post interesting links. Find
the man bites dog story.
Search the web voraciously
for a nugget you can spin
into a good tweet. Guy
Kawasaki, who has over
100,000 followers, goes as
far as paying employees to
8
FEBRUARY 2014
* Post multimedia.
Switching things up with
pictures, videos and even
sound clips here and there
can make your posts more
fun to follow.
Twitter
Follow your favorites. In
general, if you are posting
photos that users find valuable,
they will quickly follow you and
encourage others to do the
same.
* Following a few people with
intent is more effective (not
to mention far less obvious)
than playing a numbers game.
Following too many people
will also make your feed
overloaded and difficult to
digest.
Instagram
PUPPY * LOVE
A huge pet-peeve of
mine has always been when
people, usually adults,
attempt to inform young
people that their feelings
are not “real.” Or they
“Don’t know what love is.”
Granted, the older you are
the more experience you
have, therefore you are more
than likely wiser and view
relationships from a different
perspective than a 13-yearold will. However, I feel that
sometimes parents should
attempt to view things from
their daughter’s point-of-view.
break-up and she told me
she understood how I felt.
She said I would get through
this and find someone way
better than him, which was
exactly what I needed to hear
in that moment.
until the day we find “the
one.”
When I look back on
my seventh grade “love” I
laugh, but I also have fond
memories and I learned
a lot of lessons. Has my
Too often I hear parents
perception of love changed
tell their kids, “You don’t
since then? Of course. I have
even know what love is,”
felt that I was in love another
“You’re not old enough to
time since then, and maybe
understand,” “Act your age
five years from now I will look
and stop trying to be an
back and think, “I thought
adult.” I can honestly say
THAT was love?!” Or maybe
from a teenager’s perspective I won’t. All that matters is
there is nothing more
how you feel in the moment,
frustrating than someone
and the lessons you take
I remember when I was
telling you how to feel. If a
from each interaction and
13-years-old I had my first
13-year-old girl feels that she relationship you have with
“boyfriend” and I honestly
is in love with her boyfriend, someone.
thought that we were very
then for her age and maturity,
much in love with each
she probably is. Ten years
So the next time you
other and that I was going
from now she will look back hear a middle-school child
to marry him one day. Of
and say “Oh my gosh, I can’t bragging about how much
course, that did not happen. believe I thought I loved him.” they love their boyfriend/
When he broke up with me,
girlfriend, just smile and think
my world was literally over.
I am far from an expert
back to when you were their
I cried in my room for hours
on the topic of “love”, but I
age. When one experiences
and told myself I would never truly believe that there is no