I was an early adopter of the primary online communication systems collectively known today as social media. I had a MySpace page to keep on eye on my what my kids were doing with theirs. I got a Facebook account for the same reason. I still recall when I first heard of Twitter. Dave Tate of EliteFTS.com posted his Twitter info on Facebook and asked people to Follow him. I was a big fan of EFS at the time, so I did.
In the early days of Twitter, there weren’t all these corporate accounts, celebrity accounts, etc. It was just people, basically texting into the stream and interacting with each other. I really enjoyed it, with a handful of Twitter Friends I communicated with every day. I’m still online friends with some of those people today, probably over a decade later.
These social media platforms no longer even resemble their original iterations. I understand progress and I accept it. I don’t take issue with it. But what seems to happen now is that rather than use these platforms to communicate with each other, to literally have conversations, it’s now used to post news items, typically controversial ones, and then to argue about them. I’m guilty of it as well, but it usually comes to a head for me where I just tire of it. I’m there again today.
Why am I posting a link to a NY Times article on Facebook? It’s on the NY Times website. Why am I sharing a YouTube video on Facebook? It’s on YouTube. Why am I posting information about Vitamin D, the Constitution, COVID-19 or literally anything else? What exactly is the point? The information isn’t available only to me. It’s not my original content. I’m not an educator, and I’m certainly not an “influencer,” which is apparently a thing now. I really just want to check in on my friends and see what they’re up to. But we’re all doing the same thing… sharing information that is already out there.
I have occasionally attempted to use Twitter for example, as a place to just express random thoughts I think are clever or perceptive in some way. I can’t for the life of me think of why I would do that right now. I’ve used it to comment on politician’s tweets, on news organization’s tweets, but at least today, I don’t know why. Why do I need my voice heard, or read as it were? What am I trying to accomplish? Frankly, I don’t know.
Blogging has been one of those online activities that have stuck for me over the years. I’ve had many as I thought I could make a little money doing it, but that never materialized. I use the blog now to express myself, to research and learn, and to just write for the joy of writing because I do enjoy it so. I think I’m better served by using my spare time to continue educating myself, reading, writing and communicating with family and friends, and lay off the compulsive “click here to Share” tendency that the social media platforms crave and depend on.
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