I should have seen it coming. But I admit the last time I wrote a post [Just Blame It On Twitter] about Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr and the like, I got it all wrong. Wasn’t it only last Christmas, when I proclaimed my rare presence in all these social networking sites? The situation has drastically reversed since then.
I’m blogging even less but twittering more, which through the magic of shared APIs, then automatically updates my Facebook status. Same goes when I upload a picture to Flickr or a video on YouTube. And everything gets aggregated somehow in FriendFeed. To top it all, most family members, old townmates, my entire alumni association, current and past friends and work colleagues have build up social profiles. So me, the most private of persons, is connected now as never before.
Admission number two: I am totally enamoured of the 140-character micro-blogging format. It’s to the point, relatively easy and can be done at random times during the day or anytime that virtual light bulb inside your head turns to bright yellow. It’s also a boon for people who find it hard to sustain a train of thought for longer than one paragraph. It is also in keeping with the “shorter is better” generation, who limit comments to their basic core, like in “cool, awesome, or me, too”. Or even shorter and more direct to the point, as in “LOL, OMG or WTF”.
Pundits like to read profound meaning into this whole social media mix, with some claiming it’s bound to change the way we all use the internet and how we communicate in future. I may add my voice into the chatter once I’ve published my dissertation on social media. For now, I’ll simply commit that each social media channel serves a distinct purpose and collectively enhances each other. (Click here to read an article by someone who’s done their homework.)
For sure, there’s not much room for ego in a 140-character Twitter feed. So the more opinionated among us or those with a (long) message to tell will still always prefer to blog. Facebook is still very much a who you know, who your friends are channel. Flickr is arguably still the best photo-sharing site out there, in my humble opinion. And what else can I say about YouTube that’s not been said already.
So, okay, you might not see me write a blog post most of the time anymore. But as with most bloggers these days, this site is just another window to an expanding (and changing) online presence. If you don’t catch me here, follow me in Twitter, friend me in Facebook, look for me in Flickr, or catch me in YouTube, and find out what I’m reading or sites I’m visiting at del.icio.us.
And if I’m not in all these sites. Then I’m offline, mowing the lawn and living a real life.
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