Some Words on Social Media (Also, a Life Update of the Sort You Get in Social Media)
I'm not a very social person. When left to my own devices I spend most of my time alone. When I'm alone I tend to be on the internet. (Though sometimes I read a physical book.)
For a long time I didn't understand online interactions with other people. That is to say, I didn't understand why people wanted to have online interactions with other people. I used the internet to avoid socialization, while others used the internet to facilitate socialization. I've never entered an online chat room. I have used Instant Messengers, but for the most part I don't see the point in them. When I'm online, I'm alone. And I like that.
So it took me a long time to sign up for any social platform. I finally did, roughly four and a half years ago, and here you are reading my thoughts on it. I got a LiveJournal account long after most of my friends had been using it. I started posting with reasonable frequency, and I read everything that my friends posted, and I quite liked it.
A few months later, I gave in to peer pressure and signed up for Facebook. I f#@king hate Facebook. I could go on for paragraphs about how much I hate Facebook, but I don't want to let that godawful website dominate this post. I'll just say that for the next few years, I struggled to find my groove with Facebook, going through periods of using it frequently, not using it at all, or just using it to respond to messages people sent me through it. Eventually, I stopped using it at all.
About two and a half years ago, I joined Twitter. I really like Twitter. It fills a completely different niche in my online communication than LJ does. I post on Twitter with reasonable frequency.
Last July, I scored an invite to Google Plus. Like many people, I wanted to love G+ but I don't use it all that much. I feel like there's time for it to grow on me, but lots of people have already given up on it. (And the "use your real name" rule has alienated a lot of people who would be in my circles.) I still want to use G+ and will post to it occasionally. (Like this morning.)
After years of using LJ and Twitter, I've come to enjoy social media. It's pretty far down on my list of "favorite things about the internet" but there are advantages. Twitter has made me some online friends. LJ has kept me informed about some IRL friends. I've settled in to a comfortable relationship with the socialization aspect of technology.
Lately I haven't been posting very often on LJ. And in trying to figure out why that is and what to do about it, I realized that I kind of need to sort out how LJ, Twitter, and G+ can fit together in my life.
See, a lot of things that I would have posted to LJ three years ago, I now post to Twitter. If there's something I want to say that can be said in one or two short sentences, then I don't need to take up an entire LJ post with that thought. It fits into a Tweet and that's all it needs.
So lately my posts on LJ have been long and carefully thought out, and not terribly frequent. I tend to spend a lot of time planning and writing my posts, so if there's something that I want to blog about on a whim, it tends not to go up here, because I've already got something in the works. If I can condense my spontaneous thought into a tweet, then Twitter's the place for it. If not, I might put it on G+.
So right now, LJ is where I put carefully thought out things that I think are important for me to say. They might not be about important subjects, but I want to get my thoughts on them out to the world.
Twitter is where I put anything that can be said in 140 characters or less.
G+ is where I put anything that I don't want to take ages to put together, but that won't fit into a tweet.
The balance of how I use these platforms may shift over time, but for now that's where they stand.
So anyway, here's the sort of "What's Going on with Robynne" post I might have made before Twitter and G+ changed everything.
Today is my birthday! I'm 23 now. I'm planning on doing some fun things in Hollywood to celebrate. (Specifically the cemetery, Roscoe's House of Chicken 'N Waffles, and Scoops.) There are still some ambiguities in the plan, though, so it will be interesting to see how things work out today and tomorrow.
I started spring quarter classes last week. I'm learning to program in C++, and I'm learning about differential equations from this guy. You have to watch one of his videos, he's amazing. Here, I'll embed one for you.
Over spring break I visited my parents. My mom and I went shopping on her birthday, and I got a problem on my car fixed. We saw John Carter (OF MARS), which I really enjoyed, and we also saw Casa de Mi Padre, which is a really good movie if it fits your particular taste, which it did for me.
I wrote a large portion of the Youth service at the UU Fellowship last week, and though I wasn't sure I'd be able to make the service I did manage to be there, and stepped in at the last minute to play a role for someone who didn't show up. People liked it, so that was cool. Our concept was a cooking competition with gods as the contestants.
I'm working on a post about Gallifrey One, the Doctor Who convention back in February. And then there's another post that I should have put up last year but life got in the way. I don't know when I'll finish that second one.
(Oh, and Jon Rosenberg raised enough money to start weekly Goats comics, by the way. Super happy about that!)
For a long time I didn't understand online interactions with other people. That is to say, I didn't understand why people wanted to have online interactions with other people. I used the internet to avoid socialization, while others used the internet to facilitate socialization. I've never entered an online chat room. I have used Instant Messengers, but for the most part I don't see the point in them. When I'm online, I'm alone. And I like that.
So it took me a long time to sign up for any social platform. I finally did, roughly four and a half years ago, and here you are reading my thoughts on it. I got a LiveJournal account long after most of my friends had been using it. I started posting with reasonable frequency, and I read everything that my friends posted, and I quite liked it.
A few months later, I gave in to peer pressure and signed up for Facebook. I f#@king hate Facebook. I could go on for paragraphs about how much I hate Facebook, but I don't want to let that godawful website dominate this post. I'll just say that for the next few years, I struggled to find my groove with Facebook, going through periods of using it frequently, not using it at all, or just using it to respond to messages people sent me through it. Eventually, I stopped using it at all.
About two and a half years ago, I joined Twitter. I really like Twitter. It fills a completely different niche in my online communication than LJ does. I post on Twitter with reasonable frequency.
Last July, I scored an invite to Google Plus. Like many people, I wanted to love G+ but I don't use it all that much. I feel like there's time for it to grow on me, but lots of people have already given up on it. (And the "use your real name" rule has alienated a lot of people who would be in my circles.) I still want to use G+ and will post to it occasionally. (Like this morning.)
After years of using LJ and Twitter, I've come to enjoy social media. It's pretty far down on my list of "favorite things about the internet" but there are advantages. Twitter has made me some online friends. LJ has kept me informed about some IRL friends. I've settled in to a comfortable relationship with the socialization aspect of technology.
Lately I haven't been posting very often on LJ. And in trying to figure out why that is and what to do about it, I realized that I kind of need to sort out how LJ, Twitter, and G+ can fit together in my life.
See, a lot of things that I would have posted to LJ three years ago, I now post to Twitter. If there's something I want to say that can be said in one or two short sentences, then I don't need to take up an entire LJ post with that thought. It fits into a Tweet and that's all it needs.
So lately my posts on LJ have been long and carefully thought out, and not terribly frequent. I tend to spend a lot of time planning and writing my posts, so if there's something that I want to blog about on a whim, it tends not to go up here, because I've already got something in the works. If I can condense my spontaneous thought into a tweet, then Twitter's the place for it. If not, I might put it on G+.
So right now, LJ is where I put carefully thought out things that I think are important for me to say. They might not be about important subjects, but I want to get my thoughts on them out to the world.
Twitter is where I put anything that can be said in 140 characters or less.
G+ is where I put anything that I don't want to take ages to put together, but that won't fit into a tweet.
The balance of how I use these platforms may shift over time, but for now that's where they stand.
So anyway, here's the sort of "What's Going on with Robynne" post I might have made before Twitter and G+ changed everything.
Today is my birthday! I'm 23 now. I'm planning on doing some fun things in Hollywood to celebrate. (Specifically the cemetery, Roscoe's House of Chicken 'N Waffles, and Scoops.) There are still some ambiguities in the plan, though, so it will be interesting to see how things work out today and tomorrow.
I started spring quarter classes last week. I'm learning to program in C++, and I'm learning about differential equations from this guy. You have to watch one of his videos, he's amazing. Here, I'll embed one for you.
Click to viewOver spring break I visited my parents. My mom and I went shopping on her birthday, and I got a problem on my car fixed. We saw John Carter (OF MARS), which I really enjoyed, and we also saw Casa de Mi Padre, which is a really good movie if it fits your particular taste, which it did for me.
I wrote a large portion of the Youth service at the UU Fellowship last week, and though I wasn't sure I'd be able to make the service I did manage to be there, and stepped in at the last minute to play a role for someone who didn't show up. People liked it, so that was cool. Our concept was a cooking competition with gods as the contestants.
I'm working on a post about Gallifrey One, the Doctor Who convention back in February. And then there's another post that I should have put up last year but life got in the way. I don't know when I'll finish that second one.
(Oh, and Jon Rosenberg raised enough money to start weekly Goats comics, by the way. Super happy about that!)