I'm a Social Media Convert

I’m a social media convert. Well maybe not a total convert—but I have gone from being a resister to one who uses social media on a daily basis. I wasn’t enticed by what seems to be the usual social media lures: freebies and discounts, social games, access to cute pictures of friends and family, or the possibility of reconnecting with high school and/or college friends (is that an enticement?). Instead, I discovered that social media is a great way to connect professionally.

When a group of SDAWP Teacher Consultants and I created the San Diego Area Writing Project Facebook page I found many reasons to check my Facebook page, friend people, and use other social media tools like Twitter and RSS feeds. I look for interesting resources to post—and find many of them through Facebook, Twitter, and the blogs I follow through my RSS feeds.

The SDAWP page also helped me figure out how to use features on Facebook. I learned how to message—I had to figure out how to answer a colleague who had messaged me and then I learned that this message feature allowed me to send messages that wouldn’t be posted on my wall. I learned how to create an avatar, an online alter ego, since I wasn’t crazy about putting my picture on my Facebook page (I definitely have some privacy issues about online communication)—and now I think that my avatar is a picture of me! I learned how to comment and like other posts—and how those processes connect that content to my own. I know the difference between a page and a group, and know how to create and use both. I’ve even chatted through my Facebook page.

On the downside of Facebook, sometimes I feel like I get too much information about my friends. There is definitely a voyeuristic feel to peering into people’s lives without actually interacting. And I’m guessing that people take a peek into mine in the same way. (I’m afraid that I’m not all that interesting although I do have an odd mix of family, friends, and professional colleagues as friends on my page.)

Unexpected complications sometimes pop up like when I connected my Twitter account to the SDAWP Facebook page. Most of the times my Twitter feed just shows resources I tweet as an easy sharing tool—but occasionally I have a different result. Last weekend, for example, I called out to my Twitter universe for help with a new social media page I was creating for the National Writing Project forgetting that my tweets feed to the SDAWP Facebook page. I was checking my Twitter feed for responses and hard at work on the page I was working on—and not attending to Facebook at all, when I noticed a tweet from an SDAWP colleague telling me things were working fine. (They weren’t—but then she didn’t know I was actually referring to a different page on another platform) I heard later from my SDAWP colleagues that it was weird to them that I was posting this unrelated content on the SDAWP page. Clearly, I must think carefully before using my Twitter account! (Or remember to disconnect my feed before tweeting something not-SDAWP related!)

So, in spite of the downsides of social media (and am I ever glad that I am not parenting young teens in this time of cyber bullying and frenetic social interaction using the Internet), I proudly admit to being a regular user of social media. I like the speed of connections with my writing project friends, the ability to share resources and access resources easily and quickly, and getting a glimpse into the interests and lives of my colleagues. I don’t post many pictures of myself (although there is one of me parasailing in the Dominican Republic) and seldom “check in” to announce my location, but I do have an online presence—and I think I am here to stay.