Social Media - Love it or Hate it

[chickpea]

I have accounts on all listed, but rarely post on some and never on others.

 

[Cellmold]

I use facebook, but sparingly and usually for specific uses (such as organising games of warhammer or so on) but I do dislike the 'over-exposure' kind of person who feels the need to make everything about them known to the world.

It's a degree thing though and largely about personal tastes and prejudices.

 

[Qre:us]

Am a Facebooker - I have family and friends that are not local, and it's great to share some of the levity in my life with them. It's also a great tool for organizing events.

Don't have twitter.

I think I signed up for Instagram with my new phone, that prompted me to do so, after the first pic I took? Can't remember, as I haven't used it since.

I passively browse through Tumblr for some of my special interest topics, as all relevant stuff about such a small interest group gets neatly kept up to date in one or two places.

Youtube is my go to for watching a lot of clips where I can't be bothered with the whole show/movie, etc, just the stuff that interests me. I also like Youtube for Ted talks, and documentaries.

I'm still trying to figure out what Reddit actually is....beyond a forum thread of sorts?

What is Vine?

 

[ceecee]

What is Vine?

Short form video sharing.

 

[BadOctopus]

I have a Facebook account, but I rarely post anything on it. I mostly use it to keep in touch with family members and friends that I don't get to see often. I don't particularly enjoy social media. You'd think I would; it seems like the perfect way for an introvert to maintain their quota for social interaction without actually going anywhere. But it just bores me. And very few things bore me.

 

[SiegfriedSchtauffen]

I don't use messengers and social media sites. The few who actually count can ring my phone or drop a mail without wasting my time by forcing me to stuff messages through an extremely ineffective input/channel like chat.

But I still like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube because they have a nice advertising facility that will help me to spread and sell my shit.

 

[GarrotTheThief]

it's a cumbersome unintuitive process and it has good benefits but it could be improved upon...but over all I see it as a trend as young kids that I've asked think it's really lame after a few months...it seems the old folks are hooked on it but the youngins know better.

- - - Updated - - -

also: vine is a waste of time.

 

[Ivy]

I even like vines, sometimes. Like this:

https://vine.co/v/h1xPz5pmQKi

 

[Ene]

I sell my novels on Facebook. It is a prime way to target readers and clients. I have a twitter account but mostly it's linked in to my Facebook so when I post on one, I'm automatically hitting the other, too. I also have a LinkedIn account, but I hardly ever check it out. I have a blog that i post on periodically, and a website. I'm a member of this forum and a Native American community and language forum. I spend more time here than anywhere else online.

 

[HongDou]

While I use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and Vine, I only actively enjoy Tumblr and YouTube/Vine.

Facebook I use to keep up with people, log pictures and events, etc.
Instagram basically just to also put up pretty pictures of my life.
I don't even know why I have Twitter anymore since I never actively use it.

Tumblr is great for me because it caters to my interests really well - anime/cartoons, video games, pop culture, etc. I've met some cool people through there as well. And it's just a good place to save pictures to my computer for fun and I get a lot of my avatars here from there as well (my current Mulan avatar I actually grabbed from Tumblr hehe). Tumblr also has a huge rep for its authoritarian attitude towards social issues but as a feminist myself it doesn't really affect me. For me personally it's also helped root out a lot of internalized white supremacy I had buried inside so I'm thankful for that too.

I love YouTube just because I feel like I've grown up with it - when my friends and I were around 12 years old we would watch funny Pokemon or Naruto videos. We still get a little nostalgic when we watch them again to this day and we have a lot of inside jokes based on videos we watched as kids. Plus, I met some of my best friends through YouTube and I'm really thankful for the experience I had as someone who made AMVs for 5 years. This video I made back when I was 14 will always be one of my faves.

Vine is just hilarious (as long as you're not following racist teenagers like Nash Grier). I personally like AlliCattt and Lele.Pons a lot.

 

[Coriolis]

The only item I checked is Youtube, and only because I watch videos there. I don't post anything and don't even have an account. I don't do social media for several reasons, mostly a combination of privacy concerns and unwillingness to spend time sifting through the daily inanities of people I'm not really interested in to get to the occasional comment that might be worthwhile. If I need to update friends and family about something important or want to share a photo, I use email.

I don't hate social media in any way. I don't hate facebook but don't use it. Why? I don't want to be involved in this flavor of problems. I can control what I put out there but clearly a lot of people can't and that can cause issues for me if it's someone that chooses to interact with me. Plus I don't want to keep up with people or get in touch with people.

Social media, and facebook in particular, seems to bring out the worst in many people and encourage some seriously poor if not dangerous habits. Even though I don't use it myself, that doesn't stop people from mentioning me or even posting photos I am in. I don't know that they do, but it's possible.

That said, I love Twitter. It's the ultimate in efficiency and provides great reading material, as well as immediate information. That's what I want. Reddit as well.

I could never understand the point of Twitter. Seems it's for real-time commentary on events, which suggests one has to be following it all the time, not to miss anything.

 

[á´…eparted]

I don't hate social media in any way. I don't hate facebook but don't use it. Why? I don't want to be involved in this flavor of problems. I can control what I put out there but clearly a lot of people can't and that can cause issues for me if it's someone that chooses to interact with me. Plus I don't want to keep up with people or get in touch with people.

I do have an account because my curling club used it exclusively for all the club information at one time. Now they have a website so, the issue is solved for me. Facebook itself is a fantastic platform with many positive uses for individuals and businesses and for that reason, I'm glad it exists.

That said, I love Twitter. It's the ultimate in efficiency and provides great reading material, as well as immediate information. That's what I want. Reddit as well.

I actually dislike twitter. I understand the point and utility of it for people, but I personally find no use or satisfaction out of it. I have an account but it's for the purposes of HvZ and logistics associated with it.

The reason I like facebook is because you can share photos, writing, topics, videos, links, and pretty much everything else in between. It lets you do it all with very little limitations and you can circulate it between whatever groups you choose. With twitter, you're severely limited. The "efficiency" of it is actually one of it's biggest putoff's. Granted, being concise is not my strong point at all, and that's part of it, but I often have more to say than the preset character limitation. Plus the profile is limited with limited background and I think it's not organized enough with not enough information. It also strikes me as really ADD which drives me crazy.

I adore reddit though, but that's because you can say a lot more, do a lot more, directly interact with others in multiple ways that's easy to follow, and there isn't a tiny character limit.

It seems like a lot of people have serious privacy concerns over Facebook and other social media as well. I understand that, but at the same time I just... don't. Partly because privacy is a non-issue for me. I almost never find situations where I feel like I can't control my privacy, and ultimately, I don't really care if people find stuff out about me or things get broadcast. I don't have anything to hide and if people try to dog-pile on me I can fend it off. Even if it was an issue, there is just too much for me to like. I love being able to share things with my friends on there, talk about my life and the interesting things that happen on the day to day, and hearing about that stuff from others as well (I'm quite active on facebook). I've definitely noticed a trend that extroverts tend to be the most chatty/share-happy on facebook, so that might be part of it.

In essence, Facebook is an excellent social supplemental for me. It's such a wonderful little world and you get to see what goes on in others lives in real time even if you aren't around. For a nosy person like myself, it's wonderful.

Also, I hate vines. They're so ADD and far too short, and thusforth it drives me crazy. I also don't like instagram because that has this gaudy kind of feel to it, it's disorganized, and I can do everything on there that I'd want to do on facebook.

 

[Kierva]

I've seen comments around here on this more frequently over the past several days, mostly in the vein of "I hate facebook, it's stupid". It seems like, despite there being a strong use of social media in this era, there is still a subset of individuals who dislike it. Some it might be only certain forms of it, others it's across the board.

Personally I love social media. I think it's fantastic and has universally benefited society on the micro and macro scale. Not purely of course, but an overall benefit. I use facebook a significant amount, and it supplements my social wants and needs perfectly, and allows me to feel connected with many types of people in many different ways.

How do you feel about social media? What do you use, why or why not? Discuss.

Facebook was originally meant to be a tool to keep in touch with loved ones from a distance. With the advent of Whatsapp, Skype, iMessage, Viber, whatever, Facebook's original intent has become somewhat obsolete (and diluted) due to the mish-mash of various features such as the News Feed adopted from reddit, the picture sharing adopted from various picture sites and the chat function adopted from MSN messenger. The thing is, Facebook does neither of these well, and as such I find it redundant.

I also don't like how it has become a tool for image crafting. It's no longer about informing as it is about making people think how you want them to think of you. I also find it rather impersonal and an open door to what is usually kept in the realm of privacy.

And because Facebook is mish-mash of other, more specialized sites (Twitter/Instagram), my opinion cascades over them as well.

I do like reddit, however. It functions more like a forum with a lot of news, with personal connections being done behind the veil of private messaging. Unless of course, the thread explicitly calls for it.

 

[Hitoshi-San]

Instagram, Facebook, and what about Snapchat?

I know I'm a wee child so I'm probably going to be really partial because this is pretty much all I know, but I'm more for HOW the social media is going to be used as opposed to whether it is used.

Like, if you're going to be that one annoying fuck that posts pictures of you and your SO sucking face with an overused caption like, "they're my everything " or you're going to start fights with people over issues you know absolutely nothing about (99.9999999999% of the time political), you need to re-evaluate your usage.

But if you're not doing stuff like that, hey, who cares?

 

[Tigerlily]

I’m not a fan of social media. I think it can be a useful tool for some careers, as well as keeping in touch with certain people. Outside of that I have no use for it.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

I don't love or hate it. It does enable me to have some social connection and information without needing to make phone calls or email people. It provides a certain increased awareness. It's overall rather empty and false for real connection and accurate information, but it does convey some information. I like seeing cute pictures of people's families and pets, and it has been helpful for me to get help moving to another apartment. I like seeing jokes and have some funny friends who post. I don't see a reason to hate it exactly, even if it enables annoying behaviors moreso than regular interaction. I think it's very en vogue to "hate social media", but that can also be false. I don't like the data mining and social manipulation it enables or the mixed up meme-based political discussion it causes. For me it's is about snapshots of nephews' birthday party and Aunt Franny's trip to the Bahamas. Throw in some jokes about llamas, and it's worth a scroll through with the morning coffee.

 

[The Cat]

I'm not a fan. This is about as social media as I get. I wish it wasnt as popular as it is tbh. I'm not really in the swing of society when it comes to these things. It's like I'm slightly out of phase with the social reality around me. I'm aware of the others, I'm aware of the trends. But for me It's like the same dispassionate observation of a time traveling naturalist. Or the kind of seeing through the fishbowl kind of wryness. I suppose at the end of the day, too many people are into it, and so for some crazy ass reason I dont understand, I am compelled to not be into it.

It's not like I feel like I'm missing out though, the few times I've snuck on, I've ended up having the same kind of reaction as the following:

 

[Earl Grey]

Does TC count?

 

[Saturnal Snowqueen]

Meh, I liked it more when I was younger(wanted to be internet famous). I like it, but I don't really like it because of the social aspects. I mean I'll talk to my family members and stuff on Facebook and I go on everyday, but for the most part I use Facebook to look at memes and random articles. I just don't feel the urge to share everything that goes on in my life. I rarely actually post because of that save for some memes and animal pics. I don't use Snapchat at all; the filters are cool and stuff but besides my ex I didn't really send selfies of myself because it feels awkward posting and sending a bunch of selfies to people unless we're close. Plus, not being able to look up a friend by name like on Facebook isn't very convenient if you don't have to social skills to ask for/give out Snapchat names.

If this forum/really any forum counts, then I love social media. I also like Discord really well; something about that and forums eases the tension of chatting and I like having a space where we can talk about our interests. The forum gives me a sense of identity too.

 

[Maou]

A lot of social media platforms can be used for education and self-sufficiency. Especially youtube.

I personally actually use youtube just for that. I have accounts on twitter, instagram, tumblr, and pinterest for more passive uses like reading and art. It is only TC that I actually communicate with people on.