Topic Tuesday//Designing your online world//Tues. 16 Jan. 7pm - 9pm AEDT

Hello and welcome

@Catlady1 @Former-Member @frog @Adge @Shady @Zoe7 @Determined @TAB @Dexie @Skinnymum @Former-Member @Fee1 @Shaz51@Heavenbound@-Rayne- @Teej @Former-Member @Former-Member @Sans911 @CheerBear @Queenie

Thanks for joining us this evening!

Tonight, we have special guest Mat Larkin @Former-Member who is one of SANE’s digital content producers. Mat will be talking tonight from his experience, not only writing online content, but also importantly as a social media user with a lived experience of depression and anxiety. Mat understands the delicate balance needed to manage mental health while being online.

This discussion will be around the social media platforms we use outside the forums, however the practices and mind-sets we look at tonight can be applied to the way we look after ourselves online in general.

Mat will take us through:

• Sharing and disclosure
• Taking breaks
• Managing FOMO
• Controlling peoples access to you
• Controlling what you see online

Please be mindful of our community guidelines. The forums are anonymous, so tonight please be aware of what you are sharing and avoid:

• Naming a closed facebook group
• Your username on another platform
• Your social media names/handle/username

Things that either identify you directly or could lead to you being identified, will be removed and a moderator will be in touch.

With that said and sorted, I am super excited to hand it over to you @Former-Member

Hi, Forums folk! Thanks for having me. As @Former-Member said, I work for SANE, I live with anxiety and depression, and I think a lot about how I can be safe and happy online.

I love social media, and I’m a news junkie. I spend a lot of time online. Maybe too much? Hard to say. But I take care to customise my online experience to make sure it’s fun and stop it becoming overwhelming or toxic.

There are a few ways I do that. I hope tonight to share some of them, and talk with you about how you curate your personal online experience. How do you engage with the online world? How do you stay safe? What’s fun online for you? What tips can you share?

But those are questions for later. To start with, I’m interested to know: what brings you here tonight? What made you interested in this topic?

Hello @Former-Member, @Former-Member

Good evening @Former-Member and @Former-Member,

I am interested in this topic because I know how much the online world can be both a super helpful thing and a super destructive thing.

I feel exactly the same way, @Phoenix_Rising. The challenge (for me at least) is to get the most out of it without it becoming stressy or negative.

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@Former-Member wrote:
The challenge (for me at least) is to get the most out of it without it becoming stressy or negative.

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Yep, I agree @Former-Member.

Hi @Former-Member @Former-Member

I am the same as @Phoenix_Rising. I can find it very helpful but also very distressing at times. I find that it can be a major trigger at times for me.

Hi @Former-Member @Former-Member @Shaz51

The challenge (for me at least) is to get the most out of it without it becoming stressy or negative, Me too @Former-Member, @Phoenix_Rising