7 Crazy Social Media Lies was a post I originally wrote last year about this time. Time for an update and a refresher.
The Northeastern USA air is transitioning to winter (again). It makes me think of holidays, family and friends. I’m wired that way and I love it.
Before the holidays, I spend time following the news and reading the paper because I want chit chat material to talk to friends and family about. Yeah I ask about Aunt Marge’s sore foot and Uncle Larry’s surgery and Grandma Betty’s dog but in between I need some filler material. I can talk to anyone for hours, even a total stranger. I’m wired that way too.
This year is different. My filler material is social media and the lies that are told about it.
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
Albert Einstein
Chris via Compfight
Here are 7 crazy social media lies refreshed:
- Social networking is for the young. Older people are more active than ever on many social networks, especially Facebook. In fact the fastest growing demographic is 45-54 year-old’s [http://www.socialnomics.net/2012/06/06/10-new-2012-social-media-stats-wow/]
- Nobody likes Google +. Google Plus attracts millions of monthly active users and it’s growing much faster than any previous social network before it [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B]
- Automatic sharing of content on Facebook is fun. Not really. Are you sick of your friends locations check ins too? Don’t even get me started with how annoying Bitstrips are! There are thousands of web based articles about how to limit your sharing on Facebook. Here’s a good one from the Dummies people [http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-limit-who-can-see-your-facebook-posts.html
- My kids aren't on social media. Scary right! My kids are aged 12 and 15. My youngest is on seven social networks and my oldest on eight. My 12 year old has a YouTube Channel, two Instagram accounts, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr where she writes micro-blogs. Add on Facebook and switch out Tumbler and another and that's the differentiation between them.
Facebook is a huge negotiation I'm not willing to begin for my 11 year old. I crossed off the previous statement because my youngest is now on Facebook! If your child has their own email account, I can almost guarantee they are on one or more social networks. Ask them. [http://blog.sysomos.com/2012/06/13/the-new-social-question-how-old-are-you/] - Twitter and Pinterest are social networks too. These two networks are actually micro-blogging sites for sharing snippets of text or photos that can link to other websites. Twitter is more text and linked based however images are more popular than ever compared to a year ago.
- They can’t do that. Sorry, yes they can. All social networks have terms of service and privacy policies that you agree to when you signed up. You know that long wordy text you scrolled past when you signed up that changes once and a while (it did?). Social networks are businesses, they’re not all publicly traded companies like Facebook but you can bet the terms of service and privacy policies protect them, not you. Here are Facebook’s terms of service and privacy policy: [https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms] and [https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy]
- People care about privacy. Sadly this is not true. You think the settings you chose last year are still the same don’t you? Click this chart by year, the bluer it is the better it is for Facebook. And they aren’t the only social network that have changed their privacy settings, Twitter is on it’s sixth iteration [http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/] and [https://twitter.com/privacy] Did people even notice, I doubt it. Did I freak you out?
- Sex offenders aren’t on Facebook. Oh yes they absolutely are. From first hand experience I’ve seen them there. To Facebooks credit when you report any registered sex offenders profile to Facebook through their reporting system they do take prompt action, at least they did in my case and deleted the two profiles for the same offender I reported. I did notify the local police who were concerned. The police advised to call them first and let them screen capture the profile first which is what I wished I had done.
Do me a favor? If you click this button and pay with a tweet you’ll get my free eBook about kids on social media. Be cooler than them this year and learn a trick or two!
