Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, oh my!

[Irulan]

I use twitter for information. Example - I follow our local newspaper which always has up to the minute stuff posted ( Monroe and Stevens closed due to collision) things like that. I do follow a few friends who post entertaining life comments.

Facebook - I'm pretty picky about who I'll friend, but that line is starting to blur with all the women's biking activity I'm involved in this year. I use the "restricted access" feature a lot for people who want to friend me but that I have no interest in allowing them to see my stuff. Lists are a really good way to organize who sees what if you care to manage your list like that. I made a pages feed for the pages I want to follow - local businesses and organizations mostly. You have to follow George Takei's feed and Humans of New York. Most of the organizations I am involved with use FB as the primary form of communication.

Blogs, I follow a few, mainly gear reviews and sports related. Again, I like information much more than experiences. I use the Newsify reader on my iPad.

I do not use or follow instagram although I see things through other links.

I use pinterest strictly for personal idea collecting and to surf when I am bored.

Except for the Think Progress feed on FB I stay away from poliitcal stuff.

[lph]

Well, I sure got what I was looking for! I threw in a comment on a Twitter discussion today, and ended up spending the rest of the day (sh! don't tell my boss) discussing environmental politics with a local politician I heartily disagree with. Civil, but a bit... pointed. I'm having trouble leaving the discussion. That's the problem with people you disagree with, I guess, hard to leave when they're STILL SO WRONG! :-D

But at some point I will just have to say Thanks and goodbye.

[Irulan]

internet rule #1. You can't change anyone's mind. So don't bother trying.

[lph]

Heheh. Yeah, I know. But I enjoy honing my arguments. Some of the minor points may sink in, and someone else could be reading too. But no, I am not going to convince him that it does matter if half a million Norwegians drive their cars less.

[ny biker]

I really try to avoid political discussions on social media. I also am not big on them in face-to-face conversation. I usually don't think of the really good things to say until it's too late. When someone posts or shares something that I disagree with on Twitter or Facebook, I just try to take a deep breath and ignore it.

One thing that is important to teach the young people in your life -- things you post on social media really can come back to haunt you. The managers at my job do look up job candidates online and they consider what they see before deciding to offer someone a job.

[Helene2013]

Although the pressure is high that I join FB and the likes, I'm still not there. But I do lurk in some profiles and it is freaky what you can find out in those profiles, who they are connected to, etc. I don't see the need for this in my life. for now anyway. I do enough web as it is. I don't need to have a mass population follow me in every detail. I understand you can block off your profile to only selected people, etc. But then what is the real point of creating those sites???? If someone wants to know what I'm up to, give me a call or send me an email.