Social Media... A blessing or a curse?
Ahhhhh, social media….it is both a blessing and a curse. Social media is imperative these days to run businesses, stay in touch with family and friends and keep track of what the outside world is up to. Social media is a great place to learn new things, start a new hobby, or find new interests that may not have been options to you before. Social media can open many doors. However, it can also close them.
I’m sure everyone by now must be aware of the multiple groups, pages, places that you can go to connect with others via various platforms on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. We can find like minded people in many of them that have the same hobbies, interests, even passions as we do. If you like eating pineapple out of a can while standing on your head, I’m sure you can find a group full of like-minded people who love doing just that. It is a great feeling to belong and to be a part of a community.
These things are wonderful. But…. We need to use our heads people… It seems that everyone on the internet can be a self-proclaimed professional. After all, who is there to check us? That would require researching on our own, and unfortunately for a lot of people, that’s just not going to happen. It’s very easy now to stand on our soap boxes and proclaim x, y and z and for the most part, the masses eat it up. It is up to us, the ones reading this, the ones willing to put in the work, to use our heads and make sure that the advice given is up to par.
I have seen a LOT of scary things lately. Misinformation that is just parroted along, from this group to that group without regard to the damage it could do to the outside world, the people who take their advice to heart. I receive a lot of messages from very upset clients who are devastated as how horrible of a reptile parent they feel like they are after meeting some of these people, even though they are amazing reptile parents. Your Bearded Dragon does not require an 8’ x 8’ x 8’ cage any more than it only requires 2 bugs per day. You are not a terrible parent for having your animal in a smaller cage. You are also not a terrible parent for giving it a larger cage if you want. You do not have to be exact on your percentages for calcium to phosphorous, or how many grams of multivitamins your animal is getting. You are not a bad parent if you just sprinkle instead of measuring.
The time is now, everyone, for us to start using our heads. Does this make sense what these people are saying? Does what they are preaching to the choir sound absolutely absurd? Does their research start with “well the animals in the wild” when they are talking about an animal that has been domesticated for well over 40 years and aspirates drinking water out of a puddle? Are they even the same animals anymore? Animal care is about 70% learning from real, true professionals (with actual experience, none of this “well I’ve owned them for a year so I know all”) and about 30% using our heads and making decisions based on our own rational judgement (yes, I made those numbers up…using my head...). If something does not seem to be working for you, by all means, tweak things to fit your animal. If your animal is in good health after your tweaking… then guess what? It works. Not everything is black and white, there are many, many different shades of grey throughout. Animal care is absolutely an ever-changing field of study. We learn new things every day! But please, I beg you, use your heads.
Social media is definitely both a blessing and a curse. We are in a time that we can learn so much, but also in a time where it’s easy to be duped by a lot of misinformation. Always do your own research. And if you feel like a terrible reptile parent due to these groups/people, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m sure you’re doing just fine and I won’t be the first to tell you that. Hugs.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Lets keep it clean!