Blog #1 - Social Media Usage
Upon consideration, I’d say that social media technologies are a big part of my daily life—whether I’m actively participating or passively observing the actions of other via social media. I use social media technologies both at home on my laptop and ‘on the go’ with my mobile phone. I got my Blackberry aka ‘crackberry’ about two years ago and I think back and wonder how I lived without it. Especially being in NYC, we live in such an increasingly fast-paced and productive world, that getting emails in real time, in any location, and being able to respond immediately seems almost imperative. I use email throughout each day whether it be for work or personal reasons. I’ve become much more comfortable with writing correspondence as opposed to talking to people on the phone. This ‘phone-phobia’ is an ailment that I think a lot of our generation faces, simply because we don’t call people as often as people did prior to the advent of email and the web. As noted in the Donath article, email is asynchronous media, which means that we can draft messages to our liking before sending them, as opposed to the synchronous media of a phone call where must interpret social cues at a quicker pace and without visual aid.
In high school I was adamantly opposed to creating a Facebook account, seeing it as unnecessary. However, I finally gave in at the end of my senior year when I realized that I’d want to stay in touch with old friends and be able to keep track of new friends in college. I’ve slowly become increasingly addicted to the site and now visit it multiple times a day, generally just for a few minutes each time to see if anything new/exciting is going on in my newsfeed. While I do maintain my profile by occasionally adding updates, posting photos, status updates, comments on others’ profiles, etc. I tend to take the stance of more of an ‘observer’ on Facebook—essentially, keeping tabs on everyone since it’s too ‘costly in money, time, and effort’ (Donath) to stay in direct contact with a large social network. I’m definitely cognizant of my self-presentation on Facebook, mostly because I have ‘friends’ who as Ellison noted in her article, aren’t necessarily ‘friends’ in the traditional sense of the definition. My network of ‘friends’ is composed of people like past teachers, co-workers, relatives, etc. This is not to say that I portray a different persona, but rather, I present my profile in a way that I would present myself everyday in public. Alternatively, I use Twitter, which I’ve had for a few years as an outlet for more personal thoughts and opinions that I share with a smaller group of friends of whom I’m more selective about allowing to see my tweets. I have a ‘private’ twitter account, mostly because I don’t think the general public needs (or even cares) to have access to my daily ramblings. I also have a Tumblr account where I follow various blogs. I go on this site occasionally when I’m bored and feel like mindlessly scrolling through pages of cool photos, etc.
I studied abroad all of last year and relied heavily on social media technologies to stay in contact with friends and family as well as update everyone on my adventures in a different country. Even without seeing people face-to-face for multiple months, I was able to stay a part of their lives through digital means. I’m also able to stay in contact with people I’ve met while abroad now that I’m home—internet truly disregards the boundaries of ‘space’ and ‘time’ and I’ve been able to create my own ‘Global Village’ as McLuhan called it.
I also use social media in a more ‘professional’ sense meaning that I help to manage the social profiles of other people and companies. This can sometimes even mean acting or posting information as another person. The anonymity of the web not only allows this ‘deception’, but makes this easy—so much so, that audience members or media consumers sometimes turn a blind-eye and accept it. I work and intern in the music industry where artists, labels, etc. are increasingly focusing their efforts on digital marketing strategies. This work includes creating and maintaining the online image/persona for profiles with the intention of having large amounts of traffic interact with them. Being a music-lover, I used to have a Myspace profile, primarily to discover bands and listen to music. It’s quite evident that Myspace is ‘dead’ and I’m not convinced that even a big name celebrity like Justin Timberlake (recently recruited by Specific Media to help re-brand the site) can help resuscitate it. I’m also a big fan of YouTube, because I love watching music-videos, interviews, performances, etc. and it’s interesting to see what the general public is saying about the content in the comments section.
The interesting thing about social media is that individual sites constantly come in and out of favor not only because technologies evolve, but we as users develop new needs/desires for how we consume media and communicate with others. I look forward to exploring social media from the cultural perspective as I believe it can provide insight on how to more effectively utilize it in personal and professional ways.
Emma L