Social media is one of those things which I’m not sure whether I “love it or hate it”. In the early 2000s, I would set up various accounts as new ones emerged, but didn’t really use them a lot. Ringo and MySpace were two that I used moderately, until they went into obsolescence…

I’ll briefly describe my experience with Facebook, Twitter and Blogs.

Facebook
My first foray into facebook came in early 2006 when I was in my fifth year of university. An American exchange student raved to me about the wonders of it and took me dragging and screaming to the computer lab to set me up with an account. I told her that it sounded great, but that I was already on so many of these things, and I didn’t want yet another one. It seems absurd now, but I also told her that it was great that Americans liked it, but that it would never take off in New Zealand. But there was no arguing with her and for the first couple of months, I had her and her twin sister as my two facebook friends. By the end of 2006, I had some other university friends who were on the same networks as me.

Ofcourse the rest is history. In 2007 and 2008, every man and his cat created a facebook account, even right up and down New Zealand. I’ve been eating humble pie ever since!

I also have to admit that I’m addicted to it and check it over and over again each day. I’m not quite sure why I’m using it, but using it I am. I like to keep an element of privacy and don’t want to be one of those people who overshares, but I do like being able to connect instantly to friends across the city, country and the world.

Twitter
I took a lot longer to get into twitter. I didn’t really see why I needed another social media platform, when I spent so much time on Facebook. However, at the 2013 Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) conference, I found over and over again that librarians were using Twitter as a tool to do their professional development. I also noticed that during the sessions, people were tweeting away! (Back in my day you shut up and listened during a talk, and kept your phones in your bag). It was enough to pique my interest and the following week my https://twitter.com/beth_wish account was born!

I’m still not sure what I’m using this for. It’s kind of a mash between a professional account, an interest account (I’m really into tramping, aka hiking), or a holiday photo sharing account. I expect that like Facebook, it’ll evolve naturally over the years.

Blogs
I started a blog with livejournal in 2004, right before I went to live in Canada for a year. I posted regularly about all the adventures I was having, and little differences I noticed between New Zealand and Canada. I had quite a following and really enjoyed using it. However, when I returned home, I found I had a lot less to write about. I wasn’t having the same adventures, and there was nothing fun about writing about the goings on at home. I tried to keep it up for a number of years, but I think I last posted something about four years ago.

I enjoy reading other blogs though, but like facebook, I found that I could waste at LOT of time! I’ve got an RSS feed on Raptitude and I feel that this has simplified things a lot.

So there’s me! I could write about others such as wikis or Instagram, but I fear you have other things to get on with today and don’t need to read much more. I believe I’m also supposed to mention HootSuite and Netvibes, but I’ve never heard of either of these things. Love it or hate it, I’ve got some learning to do, so I’m pleased to be taking this class to learn even more!

Just don’t let me tell you it won’t take off in New Zealand!