Do you feel like you “get” social media, or do you just use it because that’s where your friends and family are?
This is the question posed in the latest WordPress writing prompt blog. I have pages on most of the popular social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn. I find that they are useful for sharing blog posts and sharing and keeping up with life events of family and friends. I would say that I “get” social media. I understand that it’s an easy way to share things online. But I prefer more traditional forms of communication.
I would much rather keep up with family and friends in person, by phone, or mail. Email is also something I enjoy using. But I don’t enjoy sharing the minutia of my daily life online. It seems that so many websites and companies are all too willing to take advantage of all this sharing at the expense of our privacy. If anyone who reads this wants to keep in touch by more traditional means, let me know and I’ll be happy to share my contact information. Also, if you’re not subscribed to my blog, I would love for you to do that 🙂
As somewhat private person (to people I don’t know), I can get overwhelmed from time to time with reading all the things my family and friends are sharing online. As long as I stay on these sites, it is useful for me to take occasional breaks from them. What about you? Are the social networks a useful tool for you?
jamesdennard.com 
My use of social media has evolved and changed. It used to be just because I found friends there. Now, its to make friends, network, be informed, and enjoy a new community! You?
Similar to you, Emily, I joined the social networks because so many family and friends were there. I’ve done some networking. But less now than I have in the past.
I’d say my presence in social media is really because of my blog. That is, I’d have a facebook account as I can see what happens with family and friends, that is after all how I ended there, but the rest I wouldn’t need I believe.
As for communication, I prefer email. 🙂 That way everyone can reply at his or her leisure, or not at all if they prefer.
Good reasons for using email 🙂 . I like to use email, too.
Good reasons for using email 🙂 . I like to use email, too.
I use all four of what you mentioned. I use Facebook to keep up with friends, family and clients. Google+ and Twitter are more of news feeds for me, but a handful of people use Google+ exclusively. LinkedIn is handy to keep up with where people are professionally. It’s not much use for keeping up with their day to day, but great for checking where people are currently working for business purposes.
But, they’re definitely not an annoyance for me. I think will all, it lets people reply when they can versus calling someone. One thing Google+ is building on is showing reviews and comments and things that your connections in that network make…and when you search through Google, you can see their past comments. It makes searching more productive, local, and personal.
I’ve just recently come back to Google+. I tend to use all the social networks for similar purposes, so sometimes they run together for me. I definitely like them all for sharing blog posts.
James-
I am a techno-imbecile so I have neither a facebook account nor a twitter account and only recently added my picture to my name with the help of my teenage daughter as I have begun posting a few perfume reviews here and there and felt that readers might want to associate a name with a face. Honestly, I read perfume blogs for several years and never subscribed until recently. Now there are about 12 blogs I have subscribed to (yours included). It is both a pleasure and a nuisance at times when the e-mail is flooded. And yet, I enjoy the interaction with like minded individuals, the sharing of thoughts and ideas and the sense of belonging to a community (despite the fact that all of us have never met in person). I grew up in an era where you either met in person or called someone on a land line. But there is something to be said about the convenience of e-mailing and always having a phone handy (I still don’t text though 🙂 !!). And on a final note, a while back I wrote a good friend an old fashioned letter on nice stationery which I mailed to her. She wrote me back and let me know that my gesture truly touched her as the letter was much more personal and heartfelt in comparison to an e-mail.
I do love interaction in all it’s forms, as well.I recently started writing s few friends by regular mail and have enjoyed it immensely.
Sometimes it can be just a bit overwhelming for me and I have to take a step back.
and as I peruse through your blog and am so loving the pictures, poems, quotes, meditational thoughts I am thinking that this is all that is so POSITIVE about social media…thank you :)!!
Thank you for the compliment, Brie. That you recognise and enjoy the positive nature of my blog means a lot to me. That is definitely my intent.
I am surely a FB “power user”, but actually don’t keep up with other forms of social media anymore. Well, I do Instagram. 🙂 Twitter was such a time waster for me, and I found I was getting little new info and really nothing meaty out of it. Now I just share posts with it.
LinkedIn, as I am a stay-at-home mom, is less than useful for me, though I do have a profile there. Too many weird connections there, though: people I have never worked with and who aren’t in my industry… I find it odd.
I haven’t taken a break from FB, though I din’t feel “pressured” to be there, nor do I feel “addicted”. I find it uplifting, interesting, educational, and frustrating, all at different times. And it’s a nice breaking from mom-ing!
I prefer email and texting to the phone, in part because my kids are so distracting and also come running like a magnet has been activated as soon as I start talking! They can’t stand it! Lol The other reason I prefer those mediums has to do with my health, which is up and down unpredictably. With email and text, I can pass info quickly without too much effort, and choose not to engage too deeply if I’m unwell. I find it harder to extract myself from a phonecall.
xo
J
Thanks for your thoughts, Jen. I prefer email and regular mail, too. I’m weird in that twitter is my preferred social network. I can understand your choices considering you have children 🙂
I enjoy social media to an extent, but a break every now and again is always welcomed.