Kevin's Watch

lorin wrote:My friends daughter said to me the other day that only 'old people' email.

While I certainly would qualify for that sobriquet from her perspective, I call BS.

Perhaps the young have no sense of propriety, but there are communications which belong in email, from one person to another, without the "broadcast to the world" aspect of Facebook, Twitter, or the like.

Even here on the Watch, we fossils have the options of PMs when what we have to say is for one member's consideration and not the entire community's viewing.

Only "old people" do Facebook these days, too. The cool kids are on Tumblr or something.

a lot of the kids around here are using Snapchat. I think they like it because it auto deletes.

well I finally finished uploading the Epic Road Trip pics to Facebook. a bit sad towards the end as I had to relive how it felt to end the roadtrip.

then bad news. my brother (4 years younger) who is a type one diabetic needs a double kidney transplant. but having no insurance they won't put him on the transplant list. so he needs to start dialysis, likely by the end of this year. and he has a bad heart. and he has basically given up.

my sister is having her 25th anniversary party in a few weeks. no money to go, because they did not tell us in time before the epic roadtrip was booked.

but did have fun volunteering at the Guns and Hoses fundraiser. (for local police and fire.)

sgt.null wrote: then bad news. my brother (4 years younger) who is a type one diabetic needs a double kidney transplant. but having no insurance they won't put him on the transplant list. so he needs to start dialysis, likely by the end of this year. and he has a bad heart. and he has basically given up.

Sorry your brother is going through that. It sucks, our healthcare system really needs work. My brother is going through the EXACT thing. He needs a double lung transplant but has no insurance.

sorry to hear that Lorin.

we are praying for the best, but preparing for the worst.

lorin wrote:

Sorus wrote:Facebook tried to assimilate me once, but I have metaphasic shields now.

do you twit? I mean tweet? I don't get the draw of that at all.

My friends daughter said to me the other day that only 'old people' email.

I see Twitter as the human equivalent of peeing on a hydrant. (Sorry, Twitter fans. Just my opinion.)

And I guess I'm old, because I use email.

And if I must use a phone, I'd rather talk to someone than text.

Gasp. Blasphemy.

Twitter doesn't really tell you any of the rules...but if you start a tweet with the other person's @ name, with no characters in front of it, then nobody will see your tweet but that other person. Or, hmm, maybe mutual friends/followers. Not sure about that, come to think of it.

But I'm not on Twitter much, anyhow. Basically, I have my Facebook page (not my personal timeline -- the author page) send all my posts on that page to Twitter. I have trouble writing original tweets -- I'm too verbose for 140 characters.

(I know way more about this social media junk than any self-respecting 50-something woman ought to have to know. Thanks a lot, indie author business. )

That's the thing - most people I know who are on Twitter and such are people who feel like they have to be there.

I'm too old-fashioned, I guess. I remember the way the publishing industry used to be. Was it better? I'm really not sure. Certainly there are advantages to social media - or at least I hope it is beneficial.

And on the other hand, there are folks like my coworkers, who tweet every five minutes. That fascinates me. What are they talking about? Are they giving their legion of followers a play-by-play of their workday? Are they more witty and clever than I give them credit for? Some of them probably are. But what is left to talk about when they are face-to-face? Oh wait, no one ever talks face-to-face anymore, they're buried in their phone texting someone else.

Is it too late to become a hermit? Can I find a cat-friendly cave on Craigslist?

Edit: Sorry for the rant there. As I said above, I do believe that social media does have positive sides. But most of it, I really just don't get.
And I have at least a little resentment towards those coworkers, who often don't seem to be doing any actual work.

You can direct message someone on twitter but you have to click on their profile to do so. If you send a Tweet to @---- anyone can see it.

I find twitter most useful for news scanning. Breaking news shows up fast there. I sporadically tweet. Mostly interesting things I run across.

Twitter is great. I started out on it because John Scalzi kept posting on his blog amusing twitter conversations he'd been having, so I joined and followed him. It's great for news, interesting links, and just general amusing stuff.

I've never tweeted, and too old to start now! FB is very useful. I have a number of old school friends and college friends who I can keep in touch with. It's a lot cheaper than posting letters to Australia! I also have a page for my One-name Study with 89 members all over the world. I can post newsletters, transcriptions, documents, all sorts there which again is much cheaper than having a newsletter printed and then posting it out! It also attracts younger people who I wouldn't be able to contact in any other way.

See, I get all that. Those are useful examples. Doesn't make me want to join up, but it's stuff I can understand.

What I found with Facebook was that I could use it to find people from all the different parts of my life -- people I want to grade school with, a couple of college friends, people I used to work with in radio, a few current co-workers, and a whole bunch of weird people who like this one fantasy author. And now I've got a bunch of author friends, too. It's a little surreal to see everybody interact on my posts, though.

I keep my social networks fairly segregated:

Facebook - Friends and only friends. Mostly because my family is scattered and I want my parents in New England to stay caught up on my kids

LinkedIn - Professional network. Will pretty much network with anyone. Coworkers, associates, what have you.

Twitter - I only post here links to job openings I have, or blog posts, answers on Quora, or maybe what I am listening to on the radio. I don't follow anyone or keep track of anyone in particular.

Quora - I answer questions here to help grow my professional and personal network and reputation.

That's basically it for me.

Uh, yeah, I don't do any of that stuff. But I'm having amazing discussions on Google+. It's like a gigantic forum with topics for everything.

It's the future of the internet, I'm telling you.

--A

Thanks for the reminder, Av.

Here's a place I am on but never visit...
Google+ https://plus.google.com/+RobertHope/posts

I only ever seem to use Google+ to respond to invites for the board game group I go to, and to post links to any blog posts I write.

I keep meaning to spend more time on G+.... Sigh. Too many social networks. And the day job sucks up too many hours in the day.

Avatar wrote:Uh, yeah, I don't do any of that stuff. But I'm having amazing discussions on Google+. It's like a gigantic forum with topics for everything.

It's the future of the internet, I'm telling you.

--A

Explain the difference for me between G+ and Facebook.

aliantha wrote: And now I've got a bunch of author friends, too. It's a little surreal to see everybody interact on my posts, though.

I have one author friend................