Social Media Blog #1

            As a social media user, I am more in the game for entertainment purposes. I rarely post things especially on twitter or Facebook. I post about once-twice a month on Instagram but I still see that as fairly seldom. I definitely use my different media for different purposes but the ones that I use the most often are usually only for entertainment or to keep up with my friends or acquaintances. I will sometimes use specific social medias for information seeking as well. 

            Instagram is my most posted on social media and as previously stated I still do not post often. When I do it is usually a mix of pictures of things I do and the photography I take. I love the art of photography and really appreciate good pictures and the stories that picture tell which is why I think I have always been so drawn to Instagram. I really like to showcase my own photography on Instagram but as I have gotten older, I have become a lot busier and have had less time for photography which has definitely led to me posting less. As an observer though I use Instagram for a few different purposes. Among these, one of the first to come to mind would be surveillance. It is interesting to me to keep up with what other people are doing and what is going on in their life. An Instagram can tell so much about someone that you don't even really know, and it can also help make new connections which is another one of my favorite uses. I also use Instagram to keep up with friends and family and see what they are doing. Instagram is kind of like the new Facebook in this regard. I also follow other accounts of things that interest me including cars, puppies, photography and other entertainment like barstool sports. These accounts often make me smile or laugh or give me some sort of satisfaction, but those are also many of the things that I look to twitter for. Below I have added some pictures of some accounts that I follow as a result of my interests and hobbies.

 

            Twitter is the platform I use mainly for entertainment and information purposes. I almost never post on twitter (unless it is for this class) and I don’t follow many people I know. If I follow my friends, it is often because they tweet funny things or it is so that I can send them tweets I find funny and vice versa. This is one of my favorite features of twitter and one of my favorite feelings when people send me tweets. Me and my best friend, Peter, send probably about 4-5 tweets to each other every day. Whenever I need to find something to make me laugh, I often just go to our twitter messages. Besides sending funny tweets though I also follow a lot of accounts that I get information from. Something that I have always been passionate about is sports so my twitter consists of a lot of sports team pages so that I can keep up with any new information, highlights, or scores from my favorite teams. I also follow pages such as Bleacher Report and NFL. These accounts allow me to keep up with all the news and highlights from around entire leagues. I also find a lot of news here that is not sports related. One of the main accounts that I follow is the associated press which publishes about 5-10 big news stories from around the world every day. Although I know it can be dangerous to receive your news through social media, I have found that the Associated Press is a reliable source that I can usually rely on to have news stories in a timely manner while also not being too fast to the point of spreading misinformation.

 

            Facebook I definitely use the least out of the 3 mentioned thus far but it definitely has its purposes in my daily life as well. Growing up Facebook was much more popular than it is now and when I was a middle schooler it basically served all of the purposes that I now use Instagram and Twitter for now too. It used to be where I would put my pictures as well as lurk on other peoples pictures, it was where I kept up with family and friends I did not see often and it is where I also followed pages of things I was interested in such as the Philadelphia Eagles. Now I do not use it for really any of these things besides sometimes keeping up with friends and family. Especially for older members of my family who do not use Instagram or twitter I will add a bunch of pictures of myself every once in a while, in order to help them feel like they are keeping up with what is going on with me. The reason that I still use Facebook on a daily basis though is because of one’s ability to make public or private groups in order to communicate effectively with large groups that I am a part of. Among these I have multiple Facebook pages for my fraternity in order to help us interact quickly and easily with everyone and make sure we all remain up to date with important messages. 

            I am definitely not as tech savvy as most of my peers, but I am working on it as I believe that it is an important skill in the world today. It can help with businesses, marketing, informing yourself and much more. I currently serve as the Vice President of Communication for Sigma Phi Epsilon here on campus and as a part of this job I run all of our social media. This task is not as simple as it may seem though because with different media platforms come different audiences and so we must work to target the right ones. As a person I am not as likely to join in on new trends such as Vine or Tik Tok; both of which are apps that I have never had nor do I plan on downloading them. I usually only download new social medias at this point if I feel that they will benefit me like apps such as LinkedIn. Being that I don’t really see myself as an avid social media user it is somewhat scary to admit that I still average over 2 hours a day on all my social media combined. I think it is definitely something that I want to reduce and attempt to make my social media usage more productive and beneficial than it is now.