SOCIAL NETWORKING
I don’t understand social networking. I mean I sort of get it, but some stuff just escapes me. I have a twitter account and I actually tweet from time to time. I have a facebook account and I sign on regularly. I think I have an account with links-something and even a few others. I don’t use them, don’t remember why I signed up, and have not a clue what my sign-on and passwords are.
I think Twitter is great for getting out information quickly to a group of friends. Instead of multiple text messages to convey important information to your friends you make one tweet. Facebook is not only great for keeping up with friends but is a tool to find and reconnect with old friends from high school, college and work.
I originally signed up to facebook to play on-line poker with friends. I signed up to twitter to try and promote my book, and my blog. I have 80 friends on facebook. I probably have ten friends in real life. I follow 30 people on Twitter, and about 30 follow me. Most of my facebook “friends” are seldom on-line and still I can’t keep up with all of the messaging and updates. Few of my Twitter follows are close friends and I skip through the majority of the tweets.
I understand reaching out to old friends and acquaintances. I understand relaying important messages to multiple people. I don’t understand 3000+ friends on facebook. I don’t understand tweeting, “Just woke up and had to pee.” I have followed interesting people on twitter that tweet every 3 minutes. I had to unfollow. If you follow 1000 people and get an alert for every tweet on your smart phone, how do you ever get anything done?
TV ads for annoying institution like Insurance Companies, Used Car Dealers and Lawyers all tell us to find them on www.blahblah, friend on Facebook and follow on Twitter. I can understand getting further information for one of these entities on the internet, but who or why would anyone friend or follow them? I have to put up with their TV ads, do I really need to get their tweets and facebook updates?
Please, someone please explain to me who are the 682 people that follow “Pabst Blue Ribbon” and get 27 tweets everyday like this:
PabstBlueRibbonPabst Blue Ribbon
It's PBR time! Just like it's been for the past 118 years.
WTF???
Too much information is like hoarding. It will clutter and control your life. Too many “friends” is like having too much stuff. You can only live in one house at a time or drive one car. The more stuff you have the less you value it. It is impossible to truly value thousands of friends. I prefer a small dinner gathering of six or eight people to a cocktail party of eighty.
I gotta end this, I have to take a leak, and then have lunch, then go to the gym, then check my email and Facebook and Twitter, then eat dinner, watch TV, use the bathroom, brush my teeth, and go to sleep. In the morning I plan to wake up and then…..what the hell, just follow me on Twitter and friend me on Facebook and you will know everything.
Cranky you are so right their is to much of it. I sometimes feel I am on a hamster wheel and I cannot get off. Blog {which I love}, personal FB, Blog FB, twitter ect...it can get crazy. I am fine with a few tweets but I do not need to know when you pee or take a shit..thank you very much. I
ReplyDeleteCranky have to admit that I deleted my twitter account because I found the absolute tripe that people post on their nothing but a waste of effort to read.
ReplyDeleteFacebook, although somewhat frustrating I do use regularly, and will no doubt use it even more now to keep in touch with friends I am leaving behind.
Still can't quite believe that this time next week I will be over there instead of over here - so cool!
Lou :-)
PS. Thank you so much for signing my book. S told me it had arrived the other day. I really appreciate it. Thanks to Mrs Cranky too because I am sure from what you have said that she will have made sure it got back into the post for me:-)
x
i exploded into laughter at the pabst blue ribbon comment. ohhhhh my goodness, i'm cracking up!
ReplyDeletebut that's so true. people tweet about a lot of nothingness, which is why even i am rarely on twitter. and you know how much i love to talk, cranky. :)
-ronetta
Too true!! I don't tweet nearly enough - and I think it's all about either showing off or promoting. It's alll about how many followers you have! :) Isn't that sad? :)
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. I'm with you, and everyone here. I like blogging, I like my personal FB account (although that is now over-run with status updates from all the FB pages I had to "like" through blogging.... I do have Twitter for myself and twitter for my baking blog. I don't have Pinterest. I refuse to get sucked into one more thing!
ReplyDeleteI think your friends might be sort of right. FB is becoming Big Brother!
I am with you on this one Cranky. Too much info out there already. If someone needs to know, they can ask. Otherwise it's probably none of their business.
ReplyDeleteThe Tweets- A lot of them are crap. Other than like you said, an occasional tweet to inform a group all at once, not so bad. But Tweeting about going to the bathroom, drinking a beer or farting, like anyone wanted or needed to know? Really???
I absolutely love the way you write! It beats watching many of the new season sitcoms on TV (many of which have been cancelled already anyway!)
ReplyDeleteYou're right about Tweeting. TMI overload, in my opinion. I just don't understand it enough.
I signed up to Twitter recently and immediately got 10 followers - I guess all eager to receive my super amazing tweets.
They have since stopped following me, cos it dawned on them that I must be pretty boring. I rarely tweet, you see.
I have tried and tried to make Twitter work for me, but it just doesn't. However, when I joined FB, many years ago, I joined a group called "am I the oldest on Facebook?" and I was the oldest in that group. It has changed since then, of course, but I do enjoy being there.
ReplyDelete