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5 ways to survive political season on social media
During political season, social media can get a bit much to deal with and some people do not know how to cope.
5 ways to survive political season on social media
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![Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima [Twitter:MrMtag]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima [Twitter:MrMtag]")
We are still months away from the climatic Presidential election in 2019 but it feels okay to be tired and jaded from the political arguments, accusations and discussions online.
It can be a bit much for people who are not interested in politics. For some of us, we just want to go to Facebook and catch up with our old friends. We do not want to see posts from an old neighbour or former classmate about Atiku and Buhari.
Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar
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The same thing also applies to Twitter. Some of us just live for the bants, gossip and thirst traps. Threads on APC and PDP can be a bit too much for us.
Political noise on social media is increasing by the day and it will only get louder till the results are announced.
In today's world where you have to be plugged on social media 24/7, getting away from the political conversation almost seems impossible.
There are however ways to get rid of the political nonsense you see on social media until election day.
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Here are 5 tips below;
1) Do not be partisan
To avoid being entangled in the political back and forth, do not tweet about who you will be or not be voting for. Freedom of expression is cool but when you state your political preference on social media, you are opening yourself up for trolls to camp in your comments or mentions.
Trolls and paid political chatterboxes are nasty. Stay away from them on social media. When you get into an argument with them it's going to snowball into a whole mess which you wish you never got yourself into.
At the end of the day don't be vocal or if you must express your political opinion make sure account is private and you don't see the pesky replies from political bots.
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2) Mute keywords
Seeing political tweets on your Twitter timeline can instantly ruin your mood. Unfortunately, timelines are littered with key political words.
Luckily for you, the good folks at Twitter have made it possible to mute keywords that you don't want to see on your timeline. So it is entirely possible for you to mute keywords like 'Atiku', 'Buhari,' 'APC', 'PDP' etc.
Please feel free to make a list of political names and acronyms you do not want to see on your timeline and mute them. This should help clean your timeline from all the political madness.
3) Unfollow, mute or block political accounts
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Go an extra step and be more brutal in cleansing your timeline of all political content. If you are following political accounts that are getting too much for you to handle, go ahead and unfollow.
Just be aware of how Twitter works. Unfollowing these accounts won't stop them from popping on your timeline. When this happens mute these accounts to ensure your timeline is foolproof from the political nonsense.
There might be a tiny percentage of accounts that survive the unfollow and mute purge. No need to worry, you have one more option available to you and that is the block button. Do not feel guilty about blocking these accounts. Your well-being is of the top most important to do what you have to do.
4) Start binge-watching TV shows
Another major option at your disposal is to cut down your time on social media. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are black holes that can suck you into a different world of political ads and propaganda.
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When it gets too much for you to handle, get off social media and do the next best thing- binge watch a popular TV series. There are tons of good TV shows for you to watch and take away your time from the political madness on social media.
If you dedicate your time to watching TV shows or get a hobby or two, you won't be caught up in the toxic political narrative that is about to hit us full force till mid-2019.
5) Go off social media
If you are still struggling with the political nonsense, go on a dry fast. Delete all social media apps on your phone. Trust me this will take away all the APC/PDP jargons from your life. The first few days would be hard but by 2 weeks you won't be bothered about what is happening on social media.
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