JOIN ME ON FACEBOOK!
I'm struggling with social media this week. I've discovered something disturbing.
When I'm not on facebook, twitter, or pinterest for 3-4 days or more - I don't really miss it. I actually kind of forget about them. How can this be good?!?! I'm a writer - I need those networks!
Still. When I take a break...it's really nice.
A young friend of mine decided to give up facebook after a decade of checking in daily. I was stunned. Her generation created social media, they have mastered it and loved it and lived by it.
Still. She'd had enough. She realized 80% of the people she was friends with, she didn't really know or care that much about. She could count on one hand her true friends and realized she talked to them on the phone anyway. Maybe it all had something to do with nearing 30. Her career is taking off, she's thinking about starting a family with her husband, and social media was just wasting too much time.
I admit, I often feel like that. When I just "check" facebook, two hours disappears. I can't even tell you the time pinterest sucks up.
Luckily, I'm not as compelled by twitter. I check in once a day, but it doesn't draw me in like the other two. I thank God for this. I don't need to be enslaved by another screen.
I wonder if these forms of social media will last. People are beginning to gripe about facebook - its advertising and the way it controls the news feed. We're beginning to have to pay to get the exposure we used to get for free. Is it just another addiction we're going to regret five years from now?
Pinterest is way cool, and I hope it's around for awhile, but I wonder what changes are ahead there as well. Are any ideas really your own anymore? I've posted crafts I thought were mine, but as I scrolled the boards, I saw my ideas already there. How can this be? Are there really only seven original ideas in the entire world? Maybe we're not as creative as we think we are.
Google +? I really don't get that one. I have a profile there, but I don't get it. It seems like the facebook nobody goes to. I'm sure I'm wrong on this, but I'm not sure there's room in my head for another endless scroll.
Am I alone here? How are you handling the social media formats? What's your favorite? What do you think will be fizzling out in five years?
Scroll weary at the Ballpark,
Well, you probably know where I stand on this. I STILL spend too much time on Facebook. Pinterest isn’t as much of a temptation for me anymore- I can gorge myself on Facebook, but I think of Pinterest as a nice treat every few days or so, and I actively use it as a place to store ideas and recipes for future reference.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know that I’ll ever want to quit Facebook cold turkey- I am very ADD when it comes to friendships, and without Facebook I would basically just forget about a lot of people unless I see them regularly (which, for many of them, I don’t). And it’s not because they’re not good friends or good people- a lot of them are REALLY good friends and awesome people, people I do NOT want to forget! I love that I can still keep up with their lives via Facebook.
For example, I have a friend who is a photographer, and she and I used to know each other through church when we were in high school. She moved out to Arizona, then to California, but she would come back to Virginia periodically in the summers. I found out about all of this through Facebook, and we have been able to arrange times to get together- I’ve helped her by being a model for some of her art photography, and she’s done some family pictures for us and she just did my “author photo” for me as well. Wouldn’t have happened without Facebook! And last summer she and I and a few of our other friends from high school all met up to go to a local theme park for the day. So fun! All Facebook-planned! :-)
So for me, I’ll stick with it, but I do periodically need to have Facebook fasts to remind myself that I am fine without it. :-)
As for Twitter...I still just don’t get it. I don’t get how to comment on other people’s tweets without re-tweeting. I feel like re-tweeting is just copying what they said, and what if I don’t want to repeat what they said, just respond to it? Just don’t get it. ;-)
HAHAHA! I'm with you on twitter! I fought joining for the longest time. An editor told me it was crucial to be a part of it for marketing purposes. Whatever. It all seems like a repeat of facebook! I do agree with you on reconnecting w/ people on fb. That has been nice. I've connected with some high school friends as well. Oh, Kasey, do you check MMW emails? I'm in a blog hop I need to pass on to someone on Monday. I sent an email to MMW to see if someone from here would be willing to post on Sept. 1st, but no response yet. Who checks that email?
DeleteI think Nikki does...but I’ll check it and see. :-)
DeleteYes I enjoy being disconnected from time to time
ReplyDeleteI need to disconnect more! Blech. For me it's facebook. Pinterest is just a giant filing system, and twitter is ... meh (although I do get sucked in there).
ReplyDeleteI think they can be useful, but it's just so hard sometimes to not get sucked in. Sigh.
Also, it's hard to keep up--there are too many formats, and they change so quickly!
Jeanna, you are right about the format changing! That makes it really hard to stay on top of it all.
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