I’m Sorry: Update on my Facebook & Twitter Usage
Why the apology? Back on June 14, 2009, I wrote a blog about recently joining Facebook and Twitter. (If you’re interested, you can access it by scrolling down and clicking on June 2009.) Looking back on it, I was rather snarky about the whole venture. Now that I am totally immersed in the social networking culture, I have an entirely different attitude; therefore, I owe you all an apology for being so cynical about joining these two sites. I ultimately started using these networks to promote my writing, but now I find that I use each one in a different way.
On Facebook, I have reconnected with family, friends, and made new connections with people whom I wasn’t friends with before but who went to my high school or with people whom I’ve recently meet. I’ve even reconnected with two women who were foreign exchange students from Sweden and Columbia and were dear friends of mine in high school.
For the people I see on a regular basis, it is neat to get this small view into their day-to-day lives. People write posts on Facebook about what they are feeling at that moment, which days later when I may see the person, that topic may not be on their minds anymore. It is nice to have a laugh, give support, or provide encouragement to family and friends in a way that I wasn’t necessarily able to before.
Most of my family lives several hundred miles away from me. Although I am an only child, I have a huge extended family. I’m friends with 98 people on Facebook and 30 of them are family members. I love being able to communicate everyday with my mother, cousins, aunts, and uncles in a way that I wasn’t able to before. In my previous post, I made a rather sarcastic remark about people being too lazy to email because it was too time consuming. Well, now that I think about it, it is. If I were to write individual emails to the thirty family members that I interact with on Facebook, it would take up my entire day. Now, I put a thought on Facebook, friends and family comment, and I write back. Communicating in this way is so much easier than emailing.
While on Facebook, I’m “friends” only with people I’ve met; however, on Twitter the majority of the people I follow started out as strangers to me but now I consider some of them friends. Using Twitter, I’ve connected with people who live in Canada, Singapore, Australia, and the UK. These people are writers, knitters, Buddhists, Fundamentalist Christians, runners, journalists, and, yes,a few celebrities, as well as fake celebrities, and some news organizations. One of the funniest people whom I follow on Twitter is a man or a woman who pretends to be Anderson Copper (@AC180).
There is really no rhyme or reason to how I choose to follow someone. If the person seems to have something funny or clever to say or seems knowledgeable about a topic I agree with or want to know more about, I will follow him or her. It’s that simple. When I first joined Twitter, I simply searched for women with the same name as I. Since Glenna isn’t a particularly common name, there were only about 100 of us. I ended up following 4 of them. Likewise, when I joined, I wanted to use the name wellred; however, someone else was already using it; thus, I am wellred70. I looked up the other wellred, she seemed interesting, so I followed her. However, I’ve found that for the most part the people I follow and who follow me are mostly writers. I suppose birds of a feather . . .
Just yesterday one of the women I follow (knitter and college instructor from Canada) was complaining that Twitter seems to assume that most people use its site to promote their business, and it seems to overlook those of us who use it for “camaraderie.” I think she hit it right on the head. For the most part, I believe the people I follow and who follow me on Twitter began using the site to promote their writing, business, or views; however, their usage has evolved in to cultivating a support network of people who are trying to do similar things, such as write while raising children and taking care of their households. Through Twitter, we commiserate, encourage, support, and, if we’re lucky, share our successes. Some people follow thousands of tweeters and have thousands of followers; I have modest numbers that don’t even break 100, but I like it that way. It feels more intimate, and I feel like I have a real discourse with this small group of people. At first I only had people want to follow me who wanted to show me their sexy pictures, but now, the people who follow me do so because they like what I have to say.
I can’t say that Facebook and Twitter have changed my life as in I’m a whole new person since I’ve joined these networks. However, these two sites have definitely added to and enriched my life. The one thing I worry about now that I have an iPhone is that I’m becoming one of those people who has her face buried in her phone when she could be interacting with the real people in front of her. I’m not that bad yet, but it is definitely a struggle to keep the connectivity to a minimum and not let it rule my life. My oldest daughter liked to joke that I was addicted to Facebook and Twitter. Funny, I haven’t heard her say that lately, especially since she now has her own Facebook wall and iPhone. Who’s addicted now?
So, once more, I’d like to say I’m sorry. My attitude in June was of someone who doesn’t like to join the crowd; my attitude now is of someone who has joined the crowd and realizes what she had been missing.
January 11, 2010 10:30 am 
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