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Am I the only one thinking that life (both online and in real life) is going overboard with all this social media stuff? It just seems to me like it's turned into this sprint of "Look at me, I'm visible here, here and here! And if you still haven't had enough of me follow me here, here and here as well!"
I'm not opposed to progress and new technical advances at all, some of these new things are very helpful and fun. Maybe they all are and I just haven't discovered it yet? But there's so many of these social media platforms that it's starting to feel a little ridiculous. In the picture above I don't even know what half of these logos are or how they might be useful.
I know, isn't that like swearing in church? :) Being a blogger and supposed to be well versed in all these technical online things. And not being present in all the social media frenzy currently sweeping across the world (except for this blog). Gasp! :)
It may be a generational thing, I definitely think that's part of it. The younger generation is glued to their technical devices and social media 24/7 and that's normal to them. I don't think that will ever be normal for me.
The other reason this all bugs me is that it all seems like fads. What's the use of registering for a bazillion social media places when new ones crop up every day and established ones seem to be left in the dust? I tend to wait awhile to see what seems to have staying power before I jump on the bandwagon. And sometimes I don't see the point of it at all.
Facebook is one example. It seems to me to be one of those fad sites (with privacy invasive tendencies) so I'm not on there. Not as a blogger and not as a private person either. Twitter is an example of one of those things where I don't see the point. I have no interest in giving you the play by play of my everyday life and I highly doubt you'd be very interesting in reading it.
I follow a lot of blogs and many of the ones I follow are "professional" bloggers, meaning they're serious about succeeding in blogging and making money off of it. That's all good and well for them, I don't think it's wrong of them to do all they can to be as successful as they want to be. But I read their posts about how to be visible on social media and how to best reel in the masses of blog readers out there (and all the work it takes to make that happen) and it just makes me tired. It sounds like they spend about as much time updating and linking to all their social media places as they do writing their actual posts. And for the craft bloggers they have to make their projects too before they can even blog about them.
Pinterest is one of the few of the social medias that I can really see the usefulness of. For me. It's visual and a great way to save or bookmark pictures and tutorials that I'm interested in exploring further. In a way it's almost like the twitter of blogging :) Short nuggets of imagery instead of a long post. I've been toying with the idea of getting on there for about a year now but only registered the other day after one of my dear readers kicked me in the behind about a pin button on the blog. You can now pin pics from each of my posts if that floats your boat. And even though I just started and don't expect my pinterest to be super exciting to anyone else you can now find me here http://pinterest.com/shoestrpavilion/.
Another reason I'm hesitating to get on very many of these social medias is the time it takes. To update your content, to link to it, to stay up to date with all the people you follow on there. As it is I spend too much time on the computer just blogging, reading blogs and general research of things that interest me. I'm adding pinterest to the mix so I expect that to take even more of my time. No wonder I have these times where it seems I can't get any actual crafting done. If I manage to craft I lag behind on the blogging and vice versa. My $20/week budget also slows me down compared to many others. So even though I aim to blog about once a week I don't always manage to stick with it. I guess you're used to me and my antics by now since you're still with me :)
I suspect I'll always come across as less up to speed on the social media/technical scene and I'm OK with that. I prefer to aim for quality of life than visibility and fame. I'm delighted that all of you have managed to find my small corner of the internet despite my lack of visibility everywhere that matters these days. This blog started out and has kept me going because I like having a documentation of the progress of our house over the years and I also collect some of my inspirations on here occasionally. I expect pinterest might take over as my main place for inspirational pic collections but I'll share them on here too now and then. You know, when I haven't had time to craft or am otherwise at a loss for words to share :)
Are you up to speed and present everywhere in social media or are you getting fed up with it too? It would be interesting to know how you think age plays into it as well. I'm 36 and feel like the people younger than me usually are more of the connected kind than the people that are older. Either way, have a great weekend!