My last Social Media Social Good column talked about some lessons learned when the “haters” went after me. Next, I’d like to share how my use of SoMe has changed, both as a result of that experience and a result of my evolving goals (from Social Media). I hope you’ll share how your Social Media and Tech use has evolved!
I have two young adult sons. My older son seems to use his smart-phone as his only device and mostly for texting and music. My younger son uses his smart-phone for music, news of interest to him (mostly entertainment), and his primary mode of nurturing his social life. When he’s stationary, he uses his laptop. Watching movies and television is a toss-up between his phone and computer.
Talking on their phones is secondary to both of them. After all, what is a phone for anyway? Isn’t talking just another app? My younger son has even discarded texting in favor of FaceTime. The reason, according to him, is that he and his friends are too busy to text and can delay a response; while with FT they have to be somewhat present. Interesting!
I, too, disdain talking on my cell unless it’s for immediate arrangements (meeting someone or finding each other) or when I’m alone on a long road trip, whereupon I like to talk to catch up with family or friends that I haven’t seen or communicated with in a long time. Part of the reason I dislike talking on cells is that I don’t hear as clearly as a landline, especially when it’s cell to cell, as most calls seem to be today.
Today, I think the most ubiquitous use for our phones is texting. My wife rarely will call someone with a question, preferring to text. Sometimes when we are discussing contacting someone about something relatively imminent, she’ll start to text and when I suggest calling instead, she’ll react as if that were a novel idea.
Is it a novel idea to call someone today, rather than text? I wonder? For our kids, is talking on the phone for endless hours something that has gone the way of “Bye Bye Birdie?” See clip below – so quaint.
Technology obviously changes quickly. Heck, wasn’t it yesterday that MySpace was THE website? Remember when you first heard about that great searching website with the funny name (Google)? How about how much music has changed? Who even remembers Napster? What happened to Record Stores?
So, it’s completely natural that our own tech uses would change almost as rapidly as the next version of Windows or iPhone.
I resisted using Twitter when it first became popular. Then, I “adopted” it and was hooked. Then, I got harassed by the haters and regrouped to my present “as needed” approach of simply putting out a timely response to something newsworthy, connecting with SoMe friends, and RTs,
Yes, that is more reasonable, given I’ve already accumulated nearly 200,000 tweets since I joined Twitter in 2009. My tweet count was truly revolting…how could I come up with over 100 tweets to send daily? Okay, I was running #DadChat weekly and participating in a couple of other weekly tweet chats…
I also used to post 12 times a week on my Facebook Page. I even wrote “The Secret Sauce to a Successful Facebook Page” as a guest column, since I thought I’d figured out how to build a page.
Now, I no longer do #DadChat, I post only when I really have something to say on my Facebook Page, still post a few too many meaningless photos on Instagram, and write my blogs also on an irregular basis. I use my personal Facebook profile as a sort of life diary for myself, and anyone who cares to see what is going on in my life. Truly, it’s mostly a personal diary and a place to post photos.
Texting is still my most preferred use of my phone.
When is the last time you used a camera that wasn’t part of your smart-phone? When did you last print a photo at home or at CostCo? When is the last time you got an 8X10 photo, framed it, and hung it somewhere in your home? When is the last time you read a newspaper or a (real) book? When was the last time you played a board game, cards, or Charades?
By the way, what is a “record?”
