Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, oh my!

[ny biker]

This just in via the twitter: new Foo Fighters album will be released this fall.

(And if I had not been stupid enough to unfollow the 9:30 Club in DC, I would have known about the surprise Foo Fighters show there last week before it happened...)

[lph]

And if I hadn't been on Twitter recently I wouldn't have known that Neil Gaiman is currently in Syria, and will be coming to Norway in a week. The first is rather heartbreaking, the second is making me a little giddy.

[Crankin]

Ok, now I know why Twitter doesn't appeal to me. I don't know who Neil Gaiman is... I do know the Foo Fighters, but only as a group DS #1 likes.
I am a popular culture idiot. Rarely go to the movies, don't care that much about music, and the celebrity craziness kinda makes me ill. While I do eventually watch some of the current movies at home, I go to the theatre maybe 1-2X a year, usually for an independent film I've read about. Even if I like a song, I couldn't tell you who sings it. I've always been like that, and it was a detriment when I taught at the gym and people would ask "who sings that," about a song on my tapes. I think at the height of the 60s/early 70s music boom, when my friends went to concerts every weekend, I saw maybe 4-5 in high school, college, grad school.
Yeah, get my news from the (gasp) newspaper, which I read in paper form, unless it's freeezing or icy and I can't get down my driveway to get it. Then I resort to the I Pad. I watch local and network news every night, unless I am out for dinner. See, I am turning into my parents!

[Irulan]

Hmm, what did I get off today's twitter? Not much that has to do with pop culture or entertainment, that is for sure. Right now I see lots of different stuff about Idaho same sex marriage law debate from the local newspaper who is getting it from a bunch of different sources, the Science Porn feed, misc biking (mtb4her, betterride, bike shop girl), Obama's feed and a few misc friends.

I'm @geargrrl if anyone cares

[ny biker]

Ok, now I know why Twitter doesn't appeal to me. I don't know who Neil Gaiman is... I do know the Foo Fighters, but only as a group DS #1 likes.
I am a popular culture idiot. Rarely go to the movies, don't care that much about music, and the celebrity craziness kinda makes me ill. While I do eventually watch some of the current movies at home, I go to the theatre maybe 1-2X a year, usually for an independent film I've read about. Even if I like a song, I couldn't tell you who sings it. I've always been like that, and it was a detriment when I taught at the gym and people would ask "who sings that," about a song on my tapes. I think at the height of the 60s/early 70s music boom, when my friends went to concerts every weekend, I saw maybe 4-5 in high school, college, grad school.
Yeah, get my news from the (gasp) newspaper, which I read in paper form, unless it's freeezing or icy and I can't get down my driveway to get it. Then I resort to the I Pad. I watch local and network news every night, unless I am out for dinner. See, I am turning into my parents!

Well you wouldn't have to follow any pop culture stuff if you didn't want to. Twitter can provide breaking news on a local, national and international level. It has come in handy for me when there was a major Metro (subway) accident a few years back, and when we had to evacuate our office building after an apparent earthquake it was Twitter that told me where the quake was centered and how strong it was (and that I should text my cousin to have her contact her son, who lived near the epicenter). It provides information on power outages and broken water mains in my neighborhood. And it was invaluable during hurricane Sandy.

It's easy to tailor it to your tastes and preferences, and it's also easy to unfollow anyone if you decide you're not interested in their posts.

[salsabike]

And if I hadn't been on Twitter recently I wouldn't have known that Neil Gaiman is currently in Syria, and will be coming to Norway in a week. The first is rather heartbreaking, the second is making me a little giddy.

Yes to both of those! I really like his work. Now you all have me interested in Twitter as a news device. lph, what were you following to get that news? His account?

I am very much a FB user and have found it a great way to show friends all over the globe great pictures--from bike rides, from our Iceland trip, etc., interesting art sources like thisiscolossal.com and streetartutopia.com, and the kind of science-geeky stuff a lot of us love, like NASA 360 and NASA's Earth Observatory. Seeing everyone's Mom pictures on Mother's Day was a total delight. Often I learn about totally wonderful stuff like 2Cellos from friends on FB. Etc. Most of my friends avoid politics. Lots of bike ride pics. Music. Art. Family and friend pics. Explore.org (thanks to TE's yellow for that one)--live animal and nature cams. A wealth of delightful and interesting stuff.

[Irulan]

With any of this stuff, you can get totally overwhelmed or take a few minutes to learn about it and how you might or might now use it.
I don't quite get Instagram, and LinkedIn seems pretty useless to me.

[shootingstar]

I don't subscribe to Facebook and occasionally I wish I did...just to comment on major Canadian newspaper articles. I find it really limiting that some newspaper websites only allow FAcebook comments. That's it. 'Cause there have been interesting/hot local articles on cycling, sustainable urban planning, etc.

But my good close friends nor are my family members aren't into Facebook. Nor do I twitter. So not missing much in terms of personal relationships.

I only used Twitter via my partner's account when I was helping him organize a cycling conference and promoting it, plus his business. I actually don't see the point of Instagram. I don't expect my friends and family hanging onto every photo I take.

I unsubscribed from LinkedIn. I was getting invites, etc. from people who were completely unrelated to my profession, my personal interests. Forget it. Though I have a strong resume, worked for some very interesting employers, I am stunned that people shlep out their resume/work history in whole world of strangers. I only do it for jobs that I specifically apply online at an employer's website.

Other than email, I do consider my blog(s)', social media. My personal blog has been a way to share photos and short posts about things I've seen, in a more permanent way for people who know me well since I live over 1,000 km. away. They are probably gettin' to know a part of me, that they knew about vaguely my whole life so far, but now, via my blog, more about some of interests/passions. (Yea, I am the sister who cycles..but now the blog, shows what I think about cycling. So it's a great way for me to chat up on a topic and if the person is not interested, fine.)

I don't "follow" other bloggers...I bookmark them. Rationale: I don't want a pile of incoming email alerts. I just will visit blogs that I like. They tend to cover: cycling, fitness, food, travel and other stuff I've been interested long time. I like sharing chatter with other regular blogger-readers.

True, that employers/employees can check up on me. Oh well. I have to say, that I try to keep my personal blog quite clean in language and not overly controversial (however cycling as a lifestyle can be controversial for some folks). I don't rant much on my personal blog because it just takes a lot of energy for me to rant in coherent paragraphs online and in the end, for me, it doesn't do much for me. Better I talk it out with friends. I am vaguely conscious that my personal blog..will be part of a legacy of me-- a digital footprint. I do see my blog a partial distillation of the best of me and a snapshot essence of "me" reflected how I take photos, photos of my artwork, how I think on certain topics, etc.

[rebeccaC]

And if I hadn't been on Twitter recently I wouldn't have known that Neil Gaiman is currently in Syria, and will be coming to Norway in a week. The first is rather heartbreaking, the second is making me a little giddy.

Well that generated a interesting conversation at work about The Sandman series .

According to a colleague at work he's researching Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, yes heartbreaking! Maybe a book or doc.

[lph]

Rebecca, check out the 4 minute interview the BBC news did with him, he's reposted it. It's very moving.

Crankin, Twitter has just as much, or as little, to do with popular culture as a newspaper does. It's there, alongside local and international news. The difference is that you can interact more. I follow Neil Gaiman because I enjoy his writing. Because of that I now know more about the refugee situation in Syria on a personal level than I would ever have learned otherwise. I can ask him, or any of the other people who were there with him direct questions about the experience, and have a fair chance of getting an answer.

Instagram I'm not that interested in. I have a few friends who enjoy photography and use it a lot more than other social media, so it's a way of seeing what they're up to.

eta: One of the major bonuses of Instagram, and Twitter probably too, is the chance of stumbling over something or someone really interesting just by chance. I was browsing Instagram one day, just looking at good photos, and via via via saw a photo of something that looked like a tame cheetah. It was, and his owner is Saudi, and he hunts with it. He also does big game hunting in poor areas of Africa, and gives away the meat to poor families. He posts under the name saudhunter. No matter how you may feel about hunting, this is a pretty interesting and unusual guy, and guaranteed someone I would never have heard of otherwise.

[Crankin]

I guess I just want to read the news. No desire to interact.
I do discuss current events with my DH and a couple of friends, but that's it.
I am not sure why I don't enjoy looking at photos or listening to music. I can appreciate good art/music, but as far as photos go, I don't really see the artistic part of it. DH likes photography and always needs to have the newest camera, for reasons that seem silly to me. I know I sound like a weirdo, but I think it's just I can't sit long enough to really look at stuff.

[shootingstar]

I enjoy looking at art and some people have impressive blogs of their own art. however for travel photography, after a few spectacular photos, I get bored..especially for photography the person doesn't bother to name the place that I'm looking at or explain abit about their photos.

Twitter is too short for my taste. ok to notify someone about something new on a web site or blog. But I don't pay much attention to twitter feeds.

[Irulan]

eta: One of the major bonuses of Instagram, and Twitter probably too, is the chance of stumbling over something or someone really interesting just by chance.

haha, excellent excuse for surfing the web as I have ever heard.

[lph]

This may amuse some of you so I'm spreading the word: a couple of days ago a friend of mine and I were griping about body fixation and pictures of perfect bodies everywhere in ads and the media, and the unperfect, "real body" movement too, actually. We pretty much agreed that when it came to people we actually looked up to and were interested in, how their bodies *looked* was probably the most uninteresting side of them. About as uninteresting as, say, our socks.

So we agreed to a very very small protest movement. On Instagram for a week or so we'll be posting really boring pictures, probably socks, tagged #****perfectbody and #bpotd (boring picture of the day). Feel free to join us :-D

(Pardon our language, we weren't thinking it would go beyond our Instagram followers).

eta: Yup, it got starred out. Well, it's the fourletter word that begins with f and ends with a k.

[shootingstar]

Sounds like a great social media share, lph. Anti-perfect body, etc.

I'm always amazed how some bloggers don't know what to write about. Honest, a squirrel is boring to probably many North Americans, but our variety of squirrels doesn't exist world-wide. Even cycling socks is a real novelty in other social circles. Not that I want to spend more reading about sock experiences/reviews.

I actually don't read blogger cycling diaries. I prefer the blogger choose a topic and write it in a captivating way. Twitter doesn't offer this at all. Facebook?