Before we get into full-swing, thank you very much if you've donated a coffee or been generous in your tapping of ads on my blog and vlog. As you might know, all the funds generated from that are donated to MSF - who do incredible work in places like Ukraine. See the bottom of this blog post for how you can help.
That's my beardy mouth, above. It's the end of the Easter weekend and I've adopted a relaxed approach to shaving. It was also an easy way to represent the mouth of a man, what with me being male and owning a mouth. Let's not focus too much on the photo! Instead, I've been considering how to word a blog post in regards to men's Diabetes - specifically how we're largely crap at talking about it.
What comes with a moderately popular social media account is the ability to analyse stats on a moderately accurate level. The bigger the number, the more accurate the data and all that so, moderate is probably about right when it comes to my socials. Cool, well... I think so! I know some aren't interested in numbers and their own voice is what is most important when it comes to Tweets and the like. I think numbers, analytics, offer a great insight into what's going on, what people are interested in, maybe even what's going wrong.
I've long suspected that my engagement on Twitter has been tilted towards women. I've never been entirely comfortable with that as there are predatory men who may have a similar tilt. I've spoken about it and openly questioned why male to male engagement in regards to Diabetes is less common - for me, at least! I certainly don't go out of my way to avoid men or to tweet/post replies to females more than males. Yet, my engagement is weighted towards women. I know that after checking the analytics of various involvements and by manually going through my own data since the turn of 2022. The figures? 68% of my engagement is with women. Yet, I know that my socials in regards to follows and friends are split very evenly - almost 50/50 as best as I can tell, sex isn't always apparent after all.
Mrs Dad has quipped; "It's because you're funny and charming and they all love you". I disagree, I'm not that funny.
More seriously, others have noted that women are more open in regards to their health and talking about it, and that a man being "as open as they are" feels safe. That may be true, at least in part, women do seem to be happy to talk about their Diabetes with anybody. If I'm as open as the women within the Diabetes communities is debatable. Personally, I think not.
So, that's me and I'm not happy with that situation. I'm very much about equality, true equality, the lifting up of the down-trodden but not the knocking down of those on a higher perch - We should all be on that lofty footing. With that in mind, I've decided to make a bigger effort in finding and talking to more men within the online communities, to encourage their engagement and to lift them up to the high standards set by women. Why? Because talking about my Diabetes has brought huge improvements into my life, it has allowed me to learn from others, to form friendships, to have a large peer support network inside my phone which means I can ask for an answer to any Diabetes question and feel confident of being given it. Why wouldn't you want that in your life, men?
Is it because you fear looking weak? Do you somehow feel less of a man, less in control, less attractive by opening up about your health when it's troubling you? That nonsense is what has put many of us in the ground too soon, for... forever? And now we have the Internet! You can be anonymous, pretty much and post a tweet without any fear. Or you can go a step further, grab a hold of your balls, tell the world who you are and what your issues are. Own it and be the inspiration for the next generation to talk openly about their health.
I'm not ending this post with the standard "My DMs are open". That's fine if that's your thing but it'll change nothing. Seriously, how many of you have tweeted such a thing and been inundated with messages? Change comes through being active. So, if you are active on socials and notice an ignored person (male or otherwise, probably male) then reach out to them and start a conversation. You could help with something which is really simple for you but result in a dramatic improvement in their well being. Sometimes, a person just needs to know someone is listening. It can be that easy.
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