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Remember almost a month ago when I joined Twitter? I cannot lie to you, I've found it much more addictive than I ever thought possible. But there's a problem.
It's making me really, super needy.
See, it feels like this direct line to your favorite people. Whether they be actors, writers, singers, comedians, scientists, what-have-you. And watching them respond to what appear to be regular old folk opened up this possibility that they'd respond to me, too. And while it's possible that someone will at some point, for a week or two there it was driving me slightly batty that I was being ignored.
Not just by the famous people, but, seemingly, by everyone.
Part of this is my natural tendency toward shyness and how I've always wished it were easier for me to just jump right in and communicate with others. Really, how upset can you get about going unnoticed when you don't do much to get noticed?
I am happy to report, though, that I've mostly gotten over it. I've been tweeting my twitters in a vacuum. Posting, re-tweeting, reading and mostly not replying to anyone at all. I figure I'll keep that up until I can get over my shy-girl-in-the-corner-at-the-party feeling enough to engage other twits (Is that what we're called? Well, it should be.) without holding on to a desired outcome.
And now that I've added another major social media thing to my repertoire, I also feel slightly overwhelmed by all the information coming at me.
For instance, when I realized you could favorite tweets you like, I started starring things like crazy. I'm using it mostly as a bookmarking system for tweets that link to articles I want to go back and read.
What this means, though, is that now I've got things starred in Twitter and my Google Reader. Bookmarks in Explorer and Firefox. Favorites on YouTube. Favorites in my Yahoo and Netscape email accounts. Notes written down in notebooks and on scraps of paper. And tons of stuff pinned to my Pinterest boards.
I frequently find myself saying, Hey, I should tell people about X! Only to realize I have no idea where the fuck I stashed the info.
I suppose it wouldn't be technology if it didn't simultaneously make our lives easier and more difficult at the same time, would it?
How do you consolidate all your favorite internet info?
5 comments:
The thing to remember about twitter is that it's a fly-by social networking site. The average post life is 2-3 hours. I pop on in the morning and maybe look at the most recent 15 minutues posted in the stream. Then I generally RT a few posts, usually articles that I will later share on my FB fan page or on google+. Another really helpful thing is to set up lists. I only have one list for my top tweeps, those whose posts I'm most interested in. You will meet so many people through twitter!
I'm with you. I am still getting the hang of it as well. I agree with Jeri, setting up a list or lists can be very helpful as you develop twitter friends. :), Susan Cooper
I didn't even know I could set up lists! Thanks for the tip, ladies!
Social Media is definitely a potential time sucker, that's for sure. Plus the bombardment of what often seems like useful information is incredibly overwhelming.
So in short you have to be selective and restrained - hard I know, but otherwise it will swamp you.
Lists are def. a good idea.
Looking for like minded people using hashtags is also another way of find things /people you're interested in eg. #writing #amwriting. Also take a look at a couple of management tools - Social Oomph is a good one for twitter and I also like Hootsuite which lets you combine sending messages to all your social media once. Both have free versions, and then if you want them to do a bit more you can pay for a premium service.
Good luck - now you know why it's called the Web- once you're caught in it....:-)
It never occurred to me to look up writing hashtags. Great idea!
I'll also look into Social Oomph and Hootsuite to see if I can get any use out of those. Thanks for the suggestions!
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