How is my social media experience so far?
Let me start with WordPress even though I know this is not technically part of the “social media” project. I put together a website over the summer with SquareSpace. This is a drag and drop web-building service. It is extremely easy to use and customize though it does cost money. Moving over to WordPress to build a website has been a bit frustrating for me. I want to be able to simply customize my pages by dropping elements wherever I want them. I have spent a lot of time attempting to do very simply tasks like, repositioning an image in my header, and have had little luck. So I am just venting here for the time being, so let me move on.
I have signed up for Twitter though have not used it too much. I do not know anyone on Twitter so the social aspect of it is kind of difficult to get into. Mainly, I find no reason to post anything since I do not have any followers. Twitter for me has always felt a little narcissistic in how it elevates simple responses to complex issues. I understand that this is simply a genre convention and in order to use it effectively, one must practice. It is difficult to practice Tweeting thoughts when I know nobody is listening. Perhaps everyone in the class should find a way to follow each other? I don’t know.
I have been on LinkedIn for quite some time. It was actually how I found my summer internship. I think this can be a valuable tool in a job search especially as more and more companies take advantage of it. I have found it to be a good place to keep in touch with professional contacts without having to worry about the personalized nature of Facebook.
The other two social media platforms that I decided to use are SnapChat and Google+. I chose SnapChat since it is currently popular for younger people. It borders on classification of social media since it is largely a text messaging network. The idea is that when you post on SnapChat, the people who are able to view it only get to see it once and then it disappears. You do have the option to view something twice which will notify the sender of that second viewing. The sender will also be notified if a viewer takes a screen shot of the post. I am hoping to see what all the hype is about with this platform.
I chose Google+ because I like the idea of “circles”. In the Adams and Wu readings, they talked about the unnatural network of “friends” that are created on Facebook and Twitter. I agreed with this idea. While I sometimes enjoy the rhetorical work that goes into deciding what I want my entire cast of “friends” on Facebook to see, this can often become tiresome. I would like to post things that only my EMU family will see. I might want to post things that only my highschool friends will see. I know there are some options with Facebook to manage this, but I have not figured them out. Anyway, I am curious to see if Google+ manages this better.
Again, with SnapChat and Google+, I am limited in my experience since I do not have a large network of people to work with. What I have found to be difficult in this project is finding the time to engage with these social media platforms. To become immersed in any social media requires a decent chunk of time commitment. I simply do have time to manage four or five social media accounts in a way that will allow me to get the most out of them.
Andrew's 444 Portfolio 