Hello, and welcome back to LifeTime with
Katie
I apologize for the kind of delay or the
gap in videos things got a little hectic
on my end and I'm gonna try and get
videos out a little more frequently
however I'm probably not going to be
doing every Saturday like I
originally planned just because like
that trying to get one out every
Saturday got a little hectic and I would
like to do more videos when I have
something to talk about like I've got
something I want to talk about do a
video get it out to you rather than wait
you know I do a video it's not gonna
come out for three weeks you know
getting things out to you as I want to
talk about them and that'll also give me
the opportunity opportunity to cover
more pro-life news as it happens so that
if something crazy happens in the
pro-life world I can get a video out to
you and it's not going to be two three
weeks later so that's kind of the plan
now I am still going to talk about
social media which is what I promised at
the end of my last video and then I'm
gonna put out a second video actually
still today like you'll see two videos
on the same day talking about some of
the pro-life bills that have come out in
different states especially the
heartbeat bills so I'll talk about those
too but those will be it that'll be a
separate video I don't want to make this
video too long
okay so social media okay and being
pro-life on social media a lot of people
I talk to are very nervous about talking
about anything controversial on social
media and this comes from a lot of
different places one is that we use
social media primarily to connect with
friends and family and when you bring up
controversial issues sometimes you find
that you and your friends and family
members are not on the same page when
maybe you thought you were or you know
that they're not on the same page with
you and you don't want to get into that
with them and I totally understand that
I have certain people in my circle you
know friends and family who I do not
bring
portion with them we do not have those
conversations and and I also have people
who definitely have a different opinion
than me but we could have those
conversations respectfully and it's not
an issue so you kind of have to judge
that with your circle your people that
you you care about who think differently
from you on this issue I'm not going to
tell you that you have to go bring this
up and Thanksgiving dinner or that you
have to go make this a big family drama
you know anything like that but what I
do want to encourage people is to think
outside the box a little bit so there's
a few different things that I want to
suggest to you if you're considering
doing pro-life social media number one
is choose the platform that works for
you when we talk about social media most
people think of Facebook and maybe
Twitter but there's a lot of other
social media options out there and so
you could and this is kind of what I've
done you could pick one where your you
know family members and friends aren't
necessarily on that social media but
there's a lot of other people who are
we've kind of reach out to so so I'm my
primary social media is tumblr I have
friends you know from real life who are
on tumblr but I don't have a lot of my
family members and and there's a little
bit more freedom on tumblr to unfollow
somebody without you know it's not the
things on Facebook where your
unfriending them you're not friends with
them anymore
tumblr got a little more chill about
that I guess and so you know I'm very
open on my tumblr blog about being
pro-life about being conservative all
these other issues that I feel strongly
about and so I know I have real high
friends who stopped following me on
tumblr and I get that it makes sense but
I also gained a lot of followers and
gained a lot of people who really
appreciate the content that I post so I
think just differentiating kind of your
personal social media where you use it
to interact with family members on a
personal level versus kind of activism
social media you having kind of maybe
you've been having separate accounts for
that you know let's say you're going to
use Twitter you might have a personal
Twitter and then
pro-life Twitter so having kind of
separate accounts or separate social
media identities to try and keep those
two worlds separate once you're ready to
be pro-life on social media you're ready
to get out there be open about it
there's a few things that I suggest
keeping in mind and number one is speak
the truth in love this is something that
people struggle with for some reason no
I get it we get riled up about something
you hear something in the news whatever
and you just want to rant you want to
vent about it and that leads us to a
couple of problems one is that we aren't
always the most loving and compassionate
when we're in that mode and so I really
want us to recommend to people that
before you post on social media stop
take a deep breath
you know maybe type out whatever it is
you want to say just you know rant type
it all out but don't hit Send until
you've taken a deep breath read it over
and then post you know don't just give
the first response and pops into your
head especially if you're dialoguing
with somebody social media and the
Internet in general give us this really
awesome opportunity to think before we
speak and unfortunately a lot of people
don't take that opportunity but you do
have the chance on social media to pause
before you hit sand or hit post and read
over what you wrote and make sure it's
really what you want to say okay so take
that opportunity
another thing is verify before sharing
it is really easy especially if you see
a news article a photo a video something
that is posted by somebody who on social
media who you respect it's really easy
just to go ahead and share that and be
like you know they wouldn't lie to me
you know and I don't think you know they
are necessarily linked to you but
somebody could have lied to them and
they believed it and false you know fake
news false stories false images false
videos can be passed around like this
for a long time before anybody realizes
that they're fake so always check the
source of what you're
to share where is it coming from what is
the evidence find a source if you can if
at all possible and you know just
double-check everything I especially
like to do this with organizations I
don't like to share information about an
organization if I have not personally
checked them out
and this can be a really quick check it
might just be like okay does this look
like a legitimate organization what do
they actually do you know how you know
how do people help and how do people get
involved I would just like to check it
out first and one of the reasons is that
sometimes organizations that look
awesome and you know seem like they're
doing some really great work turn out to
actually be you know supporting Planned
Parenthood or you know there's some
other kind of problematic thing with
them and I'm like okay I don't want to
share that so just verifying checking
your facts checking your sources before
you share something and before you you
know have a big reaction about it and
the third thing is concur with kindness
we always say kill with kindness I don't
like that phrase because we're pro-life
we're not about that but concur with
kindness you can conquer you know you
can you can win you can have victory
so conquering with kindness I like that
a little bit better when somebody is
rude to you calling you names being mean
don't sink to their level
you know don't don't get down in the mud
with them you know be kind we
compassionate be logical be calm and I
found time and time again that you get
much better results that way even if the
person who's yelling at you who's saying
mean things to you doesn't change their
tune and they might not the other people
you know you're on social media it's a
public discussion other people are
watching other people are listening to
what you're saying they're going to
respect how you handle that and you're
gonna get a lot more traction and you're
gonna be able to open up a lot more
conversations with other people who are
willing to listen so those are kind of
my social media tips
for having a successful pro-life social
media presence like I said at the
beginning my primary social media is
tumblr at least for pro-life pro-life
activities and when I started on tumblr
you know it was more of a personal blog
I post about my writing it was a lot
more just kind of about me and at one
point I had about 120 followers okay and
on my tumblr when I switched gears to
talking about pro-life conservative
politics things like that it skyrocketed
and I now have about 4,000 almost 4,500
followers on tumblr so people are
worried about losing followers I don't
think that's what's gonna happen
if you're following these steps if
you're being kind if you're being
factual you're speaking the truth and
love
I don't think you're really gonna lose
followers or if you do it'll be
temporary you know I lost a few I lost
followers at first but I kept going I
kept persisting I kept being a voice of
reason and that number went back up so
if you're worried about followers I
would say that's that shouldn't be your
highest concern when it comes to
pro-life social media well thank you and
I'll be back in a little bit with
talking about the heartbeat bills and
some of the legislation in different
states
