On Social Media and Screwdrivers

Surprisingly, they can sometimes be useful

Full Disclosure

I post links to my articles on Facebook, Twitter and Mastodon. I have a Facebook page and a Twitter and Mastodon profile for Mexico Listo. Please feel free to follow and/or like and/or ignore. I maintain these social media accounts because they help to attract new readers to this newsletter.

Social media is a complex subject. It is so pervasive in modern society that applying a binary use it, or don't use it policy is either impossible or impractical. I'm not a fan of social media - and I'm not a fan of flat-head screwdrivers. But I use them, because there are situations and contexts wherein using them makes more sense than not using them. When I use a flat-head screwdriver, I know I need to engage with the head of the screw in such a manner as to minimize the risk of the screwdriver sliding out of the screw's slotted head and damaging the wall, or whatever is in the screw's vicinity. And when I use social media, I engage with it in a manner that minimizes the risk to my mental health from all of the toxic behaviors and mis-information and negativity that permeate social media today.

In considering social media as it relates to the subject of Mexico, I will focus on Facebook and YouTube. Twitter right now is undergoing a chaotic metamorphosis as its new owner tries to figure out what to do with it; and Mastodon currently is a small niche player in the social media space. So let's conveniently ignore those two.

Facebook

There are billions of people on social media, but only a small subset of those are interested in the subject of Mexico as a residence or vacation destination. And of that subset, there is an even smaller subset that are interested in any one place in Mexico - La Paz, San Cristóbal de las Casas, etc. For these small subsets of people who share a similar interest, social media platforms introduced the concept of groups. Groups are created and moderated by individual curators, and postings to groups are limited to the subject that the group's curators created it for.

In the early days of social media, Yahoo owned the lion's share of these types of groups. However, over the years Yahoo began declining as a social media company, and in 2020 it shut down group support altogether. That left Facebook as pretty much the only player of any size in town that supported the creation and curation of groups. For better or worse, if you want to organize or participate in an online group, you are likely going to need to use Facebook to do it1.

The good news

There are many, many primarily English language Facebook groups dedicated to the subject of living in or visiting various cities and towns in Mexico. Chances are that if you are interested in a particular place in Mexico, there are one or more Facebook groups about that place. All you need to do is go into the Groups section of the Facebook app or website and type in the name of the place in Mexico, and you will see results listing groups dedicated to that place. Usually the group names will be descriptive enough to give you an indication of whether that group is what you are looking for. You'll see names like: "Expats in So-And-So-City", "Someplace Expats", "Friends of Somewhere". Once you find a group, you can either visit it or "join" it. Joining means Facebook will always show you that group in its Groups tab so you can easily get back to it, and joining also means you can post messages to the group2.

These groups about various places in Mexico can be invaluable resources for learning about an unfamiliar place from people who actually live or vacation there. You can ask questions whose answers might be otherwise difficult to find with a Google search, such as: "Does anyone know if the Costco in Puerto Vallarta has beach chairs in stock right now?". And chances are pretty good that you will get a correct and prompt answer to your question.

Unfortunately, chances are also very good that people will jump on your question in a pointless feeding frenzy. You'll likely get rude answers, such as "Did you try going there and looking yourself?". You'll get irrelevant answers such as "I found some in Ajijic". You'll get inaccurate or nonsensical answers such as "Stay away from Puerto Vallarta - it is full of cartels". You'll get subjective answers like "The beach chairs at Costco suck". You'll get useless answers such as "Maybe". You may even get toxic answers such as "Go home - there are too many tourists in PV". The point is, when you participate in a Facebook group, it is going to be a complete clown show, and you'll need to have thick skin and the ability to separate the chaff from the wheat.

I occasionally participate in Facebook groups, but only when I have something positive or useful to say, or to offer clarification on some obviously inaccurate information posted by a group member.

The upshot to all of this is: use Facebook groups as a resource for getting answers, but keep in mind that Facebook attracts some very negative people, and bad actors of all sorts. Disregard the negativity that Facebook breeds and promotes, and disregard it completely. There is nothing good or useful to learn from the armies of toxic people on Facebook. Focus only on the positive and the polite and the thoughtful responses. If someone gives you a subjective answer and you feel like you want more clarification on it, ask for that clarification: "Why do the beach chairs at Costco suck?". "Because they only come in green", "Because there is no place to put your beer" - look for answers like these, that remove the subjectivity and give you actual facts that you can then act on.

YouTube

While the job of Facebook groups is to provide a community space to share information on a particular subject, the job of YouTube is to get you to watch videos. And more videos. And still more videos. YouTube is an advertising business, and the more videos you watch, the more advertising revenue YouTube generates. Video creators share in that advertising revenue, so each creator is motivated to get you to watch their videos.

There is a ton of video content on YouTube relating to Mexico. Like pretty much all YouTube videos, the titles and the thumbnails are designed to entice you in - usually by posing some question that the video promises to answer ("Is this Mexico's best kept secret?"), or by promising some sensationalist content ("Watch armed bandits rob a bank!"). Often what you get by watching these YouTube videos is 10 minutes lost from your life with nothing to show for it. And videos related to Mexico account for a lot of these 10 minute wastes of time.

The good news

Garbage videos are easy to recognize. Poor production quality, canned video feeds, a boring narrator. Nothing to say, no value to add. The creators of these videos just want the clicks - all the effort goes into the thumbnail and the title, and the vacuous content is just there to fill space. But amongst the trash, there are some great content creators out there who really care about their product, who care about their subject matter and their audience (you). So if you are interested in seeing some really good video content related to Mexico on YouTube, how much wading through click-bait do you need to do to find the good stuff? None! Because I'm going to give you the links to the good stuff right here! While not a comprehensive list, here is what I consider to be the top 5 YouTube channels on the subject of Mexico 3:

The Country Collectors This is a couple who travel around to different places in Mexico while filming top-notch content about those places - the food, the culture, where to go and what to do. This couple's video presence is funny, cute, charming, enthusiastic and honest. They're fun to watch.

Backpacking Brunette This is another couple - although the on-air personality is primarily Alex, who is occasionally joined by her husband and friends. They used to live in Querétaro and have a lot of videos specifically about living in that city. As of this writing, they live in Guadalajara and are doing videos from there. This is good slice-of-life stuff from someone who lives full-time in Mexico. They also travel around and publish videos on those travels. Great quality, great information.

The Yarbros Another couple (sensing a theme here?) who have traveled and lived in various parts of Mexico. They moved on from Mexico a while ago to South America, but as of this writing they have just returned to Mexico - so I'm looking forward to some more great Mexico content from them.

Qroo Paul and Linda OK, I only watch couples. Give me a break. Paul is the primary on-air personality here. His content is not so much travelogues, but really well-researched practical advice and tips about living in Mexico: its laws, its bureaucracy, how to accomplish various tasks, etc. Paul is a wealth of information, and his videos are concise and to-the-point.

MaddieGold Maddie used to publish Mexico travelogue videos with her partner Jordan on the hugely popular YouTube channel @TangerineTravels. They split up several years ago, and now Maddie produces videos on her life as a single woman living in Mexico, and trying to find her next Mexico home. She is quirky and funny, and very honest with the ups and downs of living and traveling in Mexico. The content that she and her former partner produced for @TangerineTravels is excellent as well, and is still available on YouTube.

Honorable Mention Kinetic Kennons The Kennons used to live in Puerto Vallarta and published many great videos about their lives there, as well as their travels to various parts of Mexico. They have since moved on to other parts of the world, where they continue to publish videos. But they have an excellent library of Mexico related content on their channel.

Cleansing Our Palette

When it comes to social media, tread lightly. Science-based research confirms that social media is detrimental to one's mental well being. And the unfortunate truth is that any social media related to Mexico is going to harbor misinformation, bigotry, racism, entitlement, hate speech and all the other negative baggage that social media carries. This is especially true of Facebook, which attracts haters and trolls like a magnet. But if you go into it with the intention of managing your time and attention, and focusing on just the good parts, social media can sometimes be a useful tool4 for learning about what is going on in Mexico right now.

However this newsletter is a much better source 😁.

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1. There is also Reddit, especially popular for younger demographics. But Reddit doesn't have the breadth of groups that Facebook has. ↩︎

2. In many cases, you will be prompted to give an explanation as to why you want to join a group, and you will be prompted to accept the group's rules on behavior and engagement. Also in many cases, you won't be allowed to post or comment as a new member until a group curator manually accepts your post or comment, and in some cases you will be blocked from posting or commenting until some time period has elapsed since you joined the group - sometimes this time period is several months. If you continuously violate a group's rules, you may be removed and permanently banned from the group. ↩︎

3. I have limited this list to English language channels, and content creators who originated in the U.S. I realize and acknowledge that this presents a skewed perspective, but I am (perhaps incorrectly) assuming that it matches the current demographics of my readers. ↩︎

4. I can believe I'm saying this 😝 ↩︎