Have you seen the new movie “The Social Network” starring Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg? David and I hope to see it this weekend. Chris saw it and said it should be nominated for an Oscar, which is rather high praise from our resident film critic. The fact that there is now a movie about Facebook really says something about the importance of social media in today’s culture.

Chances are if you are reading this, you already understand the concept of social media. However, this video paints a pretty clear picture and is a rather clever way of explaining it:

And this one highlights some of the applications as well as pointing out what a dramatic shift in communication we’ve witnessed in recent years.

My personal experience with social media began well over a decade ago when I discovered email lists. I was homeschooling the kids and looking for support when I found out that there were these email groups devoted to particular interests. At the time, they were called “ONElist” which was started in 1997. I found them sometime toward the end of 1998. I signed up for 2 or 3 homeschool groups, as well as a homemaking group called “Spic and Span”. In February of 1999 I found CCU-list – Christ Centered Unschooling – and thus began an extremely important source of friendship and support which continues to this day.

ONElist merged with eGroups in November of 1999 and was then purchased by Yahoo in 2000. These groups remain a vital source of shared experience for many, many people. Over the years I’ve joined a number of groups but currently am active in and help moderate only two – CCU and French Chic. Depending on the size and structure of the group, they can be primarily informational or rather intimate and personal. I consider some CCU members to be my dearest friends and have, in fact, met a dozen or more in person, not to mention children and a few husbands. Some have stayed in my home and we’ve even vacationed with a couple. I honestly can’t imagine my life without CCU.

A somewhat similar media concept is that of online message boards or forums. I’ve read and participated in a few over the years although I find them a little less personal that a Yahoo group. Still, I have found some useful information on boards and occasionally check in on a couple I’ve enjoyed.

In February of 2005 I took the next step along the social media path and started my own newsletter.  “Tea With Dee” (the newsletter, not this blog) is hosted on Yahoo Groups and has a current subscriber base of  265.  I was inspired to begin my own newsletter after being an avid reader of Laine’s Letters and Penny Ann Poundwise and it’s been a fun endeavor.

I don’t recall precisely when I first began reading blogs – more commonly referred to as “weblogs” originally.  Friends recommended certain blogs such as Crazy Aunt Purl and Amalah, which were two of the first I read.  Most of the blogs I read originally were already extremely popular and often received hundreds of comments per post.  As such, I never felt compelled to comment because – honestly – what could I say that someone else hadn’t already said?  I suspect that’s why I’m not naturally inclined to comment on the MANY blogs I read, although I’m trying to make more of an effort to do so. 

In May of 2006 I made a decision that would eventually lead to a new passion.  I started this blog.  Originally titled “Ponderings of a Packrat”, I intended to use it as a means of chronicling my efforts to seriously declutter my home, just in case we ever move to New Orleans and live in one of those tiny little French Quarter condos.  Almost four and a half years later we are still in Oklahoma and my closets are still full but oh, I’ve had so much fun blogging.  So much, in fact, that I now have a total of three blogs.  Writing for them is an excellent means of ignoring those full closets.

Little by little I began to figure out how to navigate social media and eventually decided to join MySpace.  In December of 2007 I took the plunge and David joined shortly thereafter.  Our kids already had accounts and graciously added their parents, although I’m sure there were times they regretted it.  For some reason they were embarrassed by the fact that David and I would flirt with one another via our MySpace pages.  At one point Chris told me, “Mom, you DO realize that you can send Dad PRIVATE messages…right?”  Ha!  This was the kid who used to frequently embarrass me as a toddler. I’d say turnabout is fair play.

MySpace was hugely entertaining and with the exception of a couple of people who got rather hateful during the presidential election, I found it to be a positive experience.  David discovered that there were “pirates” and “wenches” on MySpace and set about adding many to his friend list.  I eventually did, as well.  We also connected with nieces and nephews that live in other states, which was fun.  Gradually, however, MySpace became less popular as Facebook skyrocketed in acceptance.

Chris had started on Facebook back when only college students were allowed to use it.  Then they added high school students and Lisa joined.  Even when they first opened it up to everyone, I didn’t think I would join.  I was still enjoying MySpace and wanted to give my kids “Their Space”, so to speak.  But for some reason, late one evening I just decided out of the clear blue to join Facebook.  A couple of days later our pastor asked if David and I would consider starting a young adults ministry.  Facebook turned out to be an important way to connect with those in our group.  Over time, we’ve been able to share in the lives of many young adults through Facebook in a way that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible.

Like MySpace, our experience with Facebook has been hugely positive.  Sure, we have had a few people get bent out of shape when our views don’t line up with theirs.  Some have chosen to delete us from their friends list; others have “hidden” us so they don’t see our posts in their newsfeeds.  Which is perfectly fine with me.  Actually, I wish there was a “hide” feature in real life.  Wouldn’t that be great?  Is someone a frequent source of irritation?  Just click on “hide” and POOF!  All gone. 🙂

Despite a few people who don’t know how to play nice, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time on Facebook.  I don’t play any of the games and usually hide all the new applications as soon as they appear so I can focus on the status updates of people I care about, as well as links to articles and news.  I’ve decided that if you have enough intelligent, well-read, politically aware friends, and belong to a few good news source groups, you can just about count on being kept up-to-date simply via Facebook.  And if you have funny friends (and husband and children) Facebook can definitely keep you entertained.  But best of all, it is an excellent way to keep in touch with the people you care about on an almost daily basis.  Oh, and I also like the Facebook feature “Networked Blogs” which allows me to automatically publish blog posts to Facebook.  In fact, I think the majority of my readers do so through Facebook.  Most also comment there, rather than the blog which is perhaps the only downside I see since the comments end up in two places instead of all in one.  But it’s a small price to pay.

If you aren’t on Facebook but are curious, here is a good video which explains it:

Now, after all my positive comments about Facebook you might guess I’d feel the same way about Twitter.  I’ve had a Twitter account since March of 2008 but I must admit that I’ve not utilized it to any great degree.  I do have it set up to automatically publish the titles and links to each new blog post.  And on occasion I will post something else or read other “tweets”.  I know there is great potential there and I do hope to use it more in the future.  Lisa uses it a lot and even hosts “Twitter Parties”, which sound pretty cool.  I suppose it’s mostly a matter of spending the time necessary to make it a regular part of one’s social media experience.  I just set up my iPhone so I can post pictures to Twitter so that may change my usage pattern.   Last night while doing some research for this post I found the following video about Twitter:

Social media has spread way beyond Facebook and Twitter. There’s Plurk, Flork, Flickr, Yelp, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, LinkedIn and literally hundreds of others out there, with more being added all the time. It’s tempting to try them all but there simply isn’t enough time in the day. Especially since I do still want to get those closets decluttered. For now, Facebook, a couple of Yahoo groups, my newsletter and blogs serve as my main social media experiences. I dabble in Twitter, Flickr, Reddit and a few others. And I’m always open to something new. If something sounds interesting I’ll give it a try to see if it suits me. I hear people say, “I’ll NEVER use (insert social media application)” which is beyond my comprehension. Of course we don’t all like and respond to the same things but to have a negative attitude about something you’ve never even tried and therefore don’t understand seems rather closed-minded to me.

I had a lot more to say about social media but this has already gotten too long so I’ll just leave you with this:

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