Despite the fact that I’ve had my own personal blog for over 8 years now (!), I’m relatively inexperienced when it comes to social media. It’s really only been within the last couple years that I’ve started creating accounts. It started with Reddit about four years ago as a way to connect with the ultra community and share some of the knowledge I’ve gained. It continued with Facebook as most races have transitioned to using it for communication. I have an account on Twitter (never the letter) that I used only a couple times so won’t even bother linking to it.
Earlier this month, I finally got around to joining Strava for the sole reason of following my son. I use an old school spreadsheet to track my runs so have not needed it for that purpose. I’ve never felt the need to share with the world my workouts. Partly from a privacy standpoint, but mostly because they’re nothing special in my opinion. And I’m not necessarily interested in following other runners’ workouts. I’m happy with my running and don’t really want to be influenced by what others are doing. I’d like to think that I can maturely consume social media, but the risk of negative thoughts outweigh the potential benefits of being positively motivated.
The one aspect that’s thrown me for a bit of a loop with Strava is the whole Kudos thing. My son is currently giving me kudos for every single activity that I do. Part of me is happy that he’s following me and acknowledging my activities. Another part of me sees this more like a participation trophy. If every activity gets a kudos (i.e. an evening 3 mile walk), then there’s zero value in it. It’s quite possible I’m being a grumpy old man about this. I should just accept the kudos (can you even decline them?) and move on. Since I’m not using Strava to track my activities, I’m not logging in all that frequently so it’s really no big deal. More likely than not, I’ll just get used to things the more integrated I get into the platform. Feel free to follow me if you’re interested in seeing what I’m doing.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Should everything get kudos or only the top activities?