Preface: I Don’t Hate Social Media

I will make the following disclaimer before writing the rest of this post: I don’t hate social media. I do believe in the idea of “everything in moderation”. I also believe that “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” …which goes hand in hand with my “having a logical / strategic purpose behind every decision” theory. Social media has some some amazing things for our society. I also think it’s contributed & influenced some not so amazing things. However, if used correctly & responsibly, social media can be pretty freaking sweet.

I was at a book store last night & came across a few of my favorite sections: psychology & pop culture. Browsed through a handful of book ( Paradox of Choice, Sex Drugs & Cocoa Puffs, The Church of Facebook, The Culture of Excess)   that got me thinking…

“We are all published now. We all have a presence. We all matter. Social media allows us to express ourselves, show our accomplishments, applaud ourselves. This is done in a relatively safe environment where we don’t risk negative feedback, unless of course you’ve allowed people into your network indiscriminately or just have really mean friends. We want to be known, and it’s easier to risk this online, somehow. To allow ourselves to be truly known is the biggest risk we take in friendships and romance, fearing that we will be rejected once people see who we really are. But we tell you, fearlessly, in our blogs, tweets, status updates and emails with an openness many of us do not practice in our offline relationships.” (excerpt from Val Brown)

Hmmmm.

You’ll Comment On My Facebook

…but not my blog. Even when I post the same exact thing on my blog (click prior link) and my Facebook:

As you can see, I had 16 ‘likes’ and about 256 comments on my Facebook, but zip, zilch, nada on the same thing posted to my blog.

I’ve always been interested in the influence, convergence and interaction between humans and technology. Why do we do certain things on one social web platform but won’t do the same on the other? Is it because everything is right there in the newsfeed on Facebook, whereas one would have to make a concerted effort to seek out a blog? (unless they are using some sort of RSS reader…)

Here are some general trends I’ve noticed over the years:

Blog commenting = I took the time to find/follow/comment on your post. Blog comments are usually a compliment, unless they tell you whatever you posted was complete garbage…then perhaps this isn’t as complimentary. I’ve been lucky to avoid the “your post is complete garbage” comments – usually people just don’t comment at all. Even though I know people look at it. Which is slightly creepy, slash, slightly interesting.

Liking/retweeting = I might/might not have actually read what you posted, but there’s something about your post that makes me what to like or share it. I can’t actually comment on it because that would take time and/or commitment. Plus, chances are, I most likely did not fully read/look at what you posted anyway.

Here are the posting patterns I have seen from my posts:

Facebook: People will comment/like my posts, both online and offline (in person)

Twitter: People will comment/retweet my stuff online but NOT offline

Blog: People will generally NOT comment on my posts online, but WILL COMMENT offline

Hmmmm.

Isn’t human online/offline behavior perplexing?

Radio Like Button

So this morning I got in my car, turned on the ignition, and on came Michael Jackson’s ‘Billy Jean’ blasting from my radio. Yes, please!

…or should I say: *LIKE!*

So, this got me thinking…HMMM. I really wish I could find a radio station to play this type of awesome music all of the time.

From here, I began thinking about Pandora, and how I have been able to train it pretty well to play the songs I have given a “thumbs up” to.

“thumbs up/down” system got me thinking about social networking.

Social networking got me thinking about Facebook..

Facebook got me thinking about the social phenomenon of crowd sourcing.

And crowd sourcing got me thinking about how much radios could benefit from a built-in car “like” button. I’m envisioning a mash-up between Facebook “likes”, Twitter trending topics, and the Pandora “thumbs up/down” system.

This would be a freaking amazing opportunity for radio stations. There’s no way I would have called the radio station to tell them I liked the song (heck, I don’t even know the name of the radio station) and by the time I got to work, I would have forgotten and moved onto the other 25 google million things going through my head.

HOWEVER, if there was a “like” button built into my car, heck yes, I would have pressed it when “Bill Jean” came on the radio! (and heck yes, I DEFINITELY would press DISLIKE if Rebecca Black’s Friday “song” came on.) [no offense].

This technology could be a huge benefit to radio stations as they would be receiving instant feedback and could tailor their playlist accordingly but could also bring back listeners they had lost to devices/tech. such as iPods, Pandora, etc.

Anyway…just a few thoughts from a random Wednesday…

One Of Life’s Lessons – You Can’t Take It With You.

I saw this a few years back, but thank you Zappos for tweeting this link – comes at a good time for me…and many of my peers, as we are right in the eye of deciding which of life’s paths to explore:

And yes, I agree, life is very much like a piece of music. The beginning and end are certainly important and telling points of the whole but the truth is, it’s the various components within (both a song and life) that are frequently overlooked, but quite often carry the most significance.

This past week at API we had our 2010 peer mentors in our Austin office from across the country for training. During the last part of the training, each peer mentor stood up and talked a bit about his/her experience abroad. Talk about inspiring.

A theme I quickly picked out from all the stories (and that brought back sentiments from living in Mexico) was learning the value of taking time to enjoy life and appreciate relationships, and that filling life with work and school is not how it necessarily should or needs to be.

Our peer mentor from Florence I think perhaps summarized it best -> There is always going to be more work or more school, but at some point, I learned there is more to life than work and school. When all is said and done, you can’t take it with you and it’s the relationships and experiences you that are going to be the most meaningful and memorable.

watch out Twitter, I’ve found the next big thing

Twitter: ” . . . a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

Thank God for Twitter.  This form of micro-blogging is genius…I mean, we don’t have time for each other in real life anyway, and regular blogging was just taking WAAYYY too much time.

Actually, this leads me to a problem I’ve been dealing with these last few months – I am just too busy for Twitter.  140 characters is far too big of a commitment.

With this said, I think I’ve found the nex big thing.  It’s going to be HUGE!  Like Google huge.

It’s this new social media platform called Flutter and I’m fairly confident it’ll be the next big trend in social media.  I <3 SOCIAL MEDIA but I am too busy maintaining my other 27 online identities, so Flutter is really going to help out with this problem.

Check it out: