This week I’m sharing my favourite posts of 2011. Today, I’m rounding up my top posts on living with social media: from how to navigate social media with your kids, to online romance, to the online challenges and opportunities for personal growth and happiness.

1. Facebooking the kids: 12 Dos & Don’ts: Facebook can be a great way to share your family news with a small circle of friends — if you’re smart about using privacy settings. This post rounds up the recommendations from my series on Facebooking the kids.
2. Social media for the 28th day: 9 tech tips for easier periods: Even if you’re not part of the menstruating population, this post may help you think about how you can adapt a tech routing to cope with any aspect of your life. And if you do  have periods — well, seriously, you’ve got to read this post.
3. Internet tunes: Craiglist Hookup – Missed Connections: This year I started collecting songs about social media, and blogging my favourites. This song about falling in love via Craigslist is one of the songs that has lodged in my head. It’s awesome.
4. The Lonely Princess: A social media fairy tale: If you’re looking for a bedtime story that will help you explain social media to your little ones, introduce them to the Lonely Princess.
5. Creating a family social media policy: The ongoing conversation in our home about how to use social media — and in particular, how to do so in a way that is both safe and enjoyable for our kids — has helped us evolve a de facto social media policy governing how we engage with social media as a family. I decided it was time to go from de facto to actual, recorded policy. Use our policy as a jumping-off point for your own.
6. 8 ways to beat the urgency trap in online communications: If 2011 felt like the year social media speeded everything up, it’s not too late to slow down the pace.
7. Facebook dating: 8 tips for pickup artists (or how to avoid them): Did you know that Facebook has become a dating move? Yes, really. Here’s how it works — and how to avoid becoming a casualty.
8. The 10 best tips on how to write an online dating profile: In my continued, vicarious adventure into online dating, I cast a wide net for great online advice that could help me write a compelling dating profile for a dear friend.
9. 6 solutions to the sadness of social media: Is social media making us sad? On the UK’s Channel 4 News website, Benjamin Cohen is concerned that social media is changing the nature of friendship, and has adjusted his use of social media in response: I’ve stopped sharing as much, full stop….I’m not suggesting that everyone else should do the same, but I’m suggesting
10. Leaning into online struggles: This fall was rough, but it got easier once I remembered to “lean in”: to give into the challenges instead of struggling against them. Here’s how you can apply the same principle to your life online.
11. 9 ways the Internet can cheer your mood when you’re feeling sad:  Feeling blue? The Internet can help. Really.