Your relationship with social media

I have a personal Facebook account that I participated on for a couple of months back 5+ years ago, and then never again. I have a Bullgrit (business) FB account that I rarely do anything more than post links to my blog. I have a Bullgrit Twitter account that I haven't used (tweeted) but maybe a dozen times, again 5+ years ago. Other than occasional discussion forum posting, my blog is my only real online social interaction.

For me, my lack of online social interaction is an affect of time limitations. If I didn't have a job, or family, or other responsibilities/activities, I'd be all over social media.

For my second question:

Oh god, I have so damn many online accounts. I have a 4-5 page (three columns) Word doc with all my usernames and passwords (and security questions). And very few of those accounts were created by choice. The vast majority of them are because you can't do anything online without setting up an account. I had to order a part for my lawn mower a couple weeks ago, and to order a one-time $10 part from the online store I had to make an account. I'd estimate that I have around 40 online accounts -- everything from regular gaming to one-time store purchases.

I recently made everyone in my family list out their account names and passwords (wife, and two sons now old enough to start having online accounts for various things). My 14 year old son has at least 3 online accounts required because of school.

Bullgrit

I do have Facebook and G+ accounts, for keeping up with a few select individuals, and because a couple of groups I do things with use Facebook as their primary communication tool these days. I have a LinkedIn account for professional purposes. I don't spend a whole lot of time on any of these. Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter? I don't have accounts.

I would characterize my overall relationship with social media as "passing acquaintances". I simply don't have much need or desire to use it to any major degree.

I pretty much never got into anything but Facebook, which I check occasionally but rarely post anything. For the most part, I don't really care about social media. I have my gtalk which I use to talk to my friends frequently, and texting, so I don't really need to go on any social networks and chat with people I don't even know.

I only got into Facebook because my coworkers at work a couple jobs ago were talking about Facebook all the time so eventually I created my account. Which ended up being a good thing because a while later someone I knew but hadn't talked to in YEARS suddenly one day appeared on Facebook after having seen one of those "You may know this person" pictures and we eventually got married. So yay for Facebook, though I still haven't been interested in any other types of social account. I keep Facebook around I suppose just because I figure I should have ONE social account.

I have a Facebook account that I read about once a week and post in about once a month. It's a convenient way to keep track of acquaintances that I am fond of but don't have time to devote a lot of effort to an active friendship (e.g. old friends from high school, ex-coworkers, people who I used to hang out with but now live a few states away from).

I have a handful of news and forum sites like ENWorld that I read often, and a smaller handful that I post to occasionally. I have a LinkedIn for business. I have accounts at a few social media sites that I've never actually used.

Overall, I would consider my social media use quite middle ground. I have enough internet presence that I can be connected to people when I need/want to, and enough separation that I can ignore it and not feel like I'm missing anything.

I have FB,and twitter. I use FB to keep up with friends and family stuff I'm interested in. With my twitter,I use it to keep up with even more stuff i'm interested and it's also one way that one of the companies that I pay money to play game does CS.

Clearly,I'm a member of this forum, and at least two other forums.

Depends on what you call social media. Are we only talking about Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin? Do we expand that to Instagram, Youtube, and the like? Forums? They're all a form of social media and have their own peculiar form of interaction.

As a computer professional I have a love/hate relationship with things like social media. I have a LinkedIn account (get notifications, but don't use it), G+ (by virtue of having a couple of Gmail accounts; never use the thing), frequent Youtube. No Instagram or Twitter, both of which I consider to be truly worthless. No one wants pictures of my dinner, nor 140 character expulsions of my narcissism. I don't own a smartphone, though I have to use one at work. It stays in the desk when I go home and my personal phone is a flip. It wouldn't even have a camera on it, if I'd had the option of not, and even that phone isn't on my person. It's generally in a backpack, or the like. I wear a pocket watch; a mechanical wind-up.

I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to Facebook which I do actually get some use out of. It keeps me connected with clients of my tiny, little motorcycle racing photography sideline. It has, however, proved useful in connecting me with a very diverse group of people. Never would have thought that I'd communicate with actors a continent away on a regular basis, for example, nor that I'd occasionally be sending some of my work their way.

Like many things I would say that it's good in moderation. Like many things I would say that there's a vast horde of people out there who can't use it in moderation.

Tonight, because of pressure from my mom, my cousins came over and enabled everyone's FaceTime and messaging apps.

To thank them, I immediately sent them rude messages & images.

I have accounts on LinkedIn and Xing, but don't use them actively. Apart from that I'm probably something like a social media autist.

Frankly speaking, I'm not interested in by the minute reports of what other people are doing, be they my friends or not. I value my private life and privacy and expect the same from people around me.

Or, in other words, I want to actively decide which persons and topics I want to deal with at any given point in time, and not just reacting because some message just came in.

Dannyalcatraz said:

Tonight, because of pressure from my mom, my cousins came over and enabled everyone's FaceTime and messaging apps.

Click to expand...

Which brings up a difficult distinction - the difference between "social media" and "communications technologies".

The line IS blurry, but I think social media allows for more broadcasting and less control over who gets the initial info than do communications tech. I just brought that up as an indication of my hostility.

IOW, if I ever have to be on true social media for anything other than business purposes...well...it may be NSFW.