Do you know what all of these are?

[Lindagerr]

A friend posted this on LinkedIn, I have only heard about 5 or 6 of these and am not even sure what some of them do. Does anyone know what all of them do/are? Could you explain for me, I must really be getting old when I am so out of the loop.

[sanantone]

I know Facebook, and I'm sure most people do. Tumblr is for posting short blogs and pictures. People usually post a lot of gifs on there. Skype is for chatting and phone calls where you can use a webcam. Twitter is where you write messages limited to 140 characters. Of course, LinkedIn is for professional networking. Instagram is where you share photos. Pinterest is some kind of online version of a board where you collect interests. I don't get the appeal. YouTube is where people post videos of all kinds. Wordpress is for publishing blogs in a more professional format than Tumblr. Reddit is for promoting links to news stories. I've never heard of foursquare or Imgur.

I still have a Myspace account open even though I never log on. Everyone has defected to Facebook which is inferior in my opinion. I also have a Facebook account so that I can be forced to look at hundreds pictures of my acquaintances' children even if they're not cute. I've tried Twitter and Tumblr and don't like them. I've never cared to start an Instagram or Pinterest account. I have a LinkedIn account, but I've found that it sucks for my fields. LinkedIn and Facebook should be the only social networking sites needed. I don't really consider YouTube to be a social networking site. LinkedIn is for the professional stuff and Facebook lets you post all of the stupid, trivial stuff. People who have a half a dozen social networking accounts to keep up with need to read a book. Americans are getting dumber by the minute.

[ejcompere]

Lol. Sanantone. Very amusing comments

I think Youtube is considered "Social media" because it does allow for commenting and liking and is being used more and more by individuals for sharing personal life events with other friends/family through video.

[sanantone]

I get your point. I rarely comment on YouTube videos or even log into my account. The thumbs up/down buttons are the worst things that happened to YouTube.

[Lindagerr]

Thank you sanantone. I know LinkedIn and use it sort of only since I am looking for a job, most of the time I don't care who connected to who and who has a new job.

Facebook is something I check out once in a while to see what my cousins,nieces and nephew are up to.

I know about Pinterest but I am not sure I understand the concept or appeal

Of course I know Youtube but I only go there when someone I know post a link. I can't imagine social networking that way.

I have used Skype once or twice but again don't see the big appeal

I have heard the words Twitter and Tubler I just don't get it.

Have never even heard Reddit, foursquare, wordpress, instagram and Imgur.

I agree if people have time to keep up with all of this $hit they have no person to person social life, don't get out and exercise, do not read at all, and probably don't know how to write except in text write with shortcuts and misspellings. I saw a movie or maybe it was a Star Trek episode where these beings had no body they had evolved to the point where everything could be done by just having their mind talk to the computers and so they no longer needed bodies. That is the way our world seems to be going.

Maybe I am glad I am getting older, I received a real live snail-mail letter from a friend the other day. I exchange real cards and notes with other friends. I spend hours a week talking(yea really talking not texting) with fiends while I clean my house, it makes the work go faster. I will admit I do read some books on the kindle but part of the reason for that is I don't have room for any more bookcases in my house. I miss going out to lunch or breakfast with friends or just going to a store to window shop together, I have lived in NY almost 1 1/2 years and the only neighbors whose names we know are the ones we have introduced ourselves to and none of them has made any attempt to further that acquaintance. I have more people I call friends on this board then in my town, in my opinion that is a sad state of affairs.

Well that got way off track, but the idea is we have too many electronic social outlets and not enough physical ones.

[sanantone]

I know I make mistakes occasionally, but the poor writing skills displayed on Twitter are disturbing. There are even celebrities on Twitter who can't write above the 3rd grade level. I don't care if you read a book on Kindle or in print; just read something with substance. Your description of that Star Trek episode reminds me of Wall-E. However, people who stay on social networking sites all day somehow do get in some workout time. I know because they take pictures and talk about working out all the time. People will share pictures of their salads...

[ShotoJuku]

I heard that My Space, FaceBook and Twitter were being merged into one unique program that will be called.......wait for it..........My Twit Face!!!

Ba Da Tish!!!

[TMW2010]

This is a rather interesting topic to me (one which is actually being discussed in my current class on Teaching in an Online Curriculum). There's a pair of articles by Marc Prensky (2001) called Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (Part I & II) that examines the difference between the use (and understanding) of technology, both socially and in the learning environment, between Baby Boomers/Gen X/Gen Y and today's N-gen or D-gen students. The 'N' stands for 'Net' and 'D' for digital; personally I've not heard anyone refer to today's generation by those names but hey, he's published and I'm not (unless you count my wife putting my papers that get an A on the refrigerator with a magnet - Silly wife). Prensky posits that not only has the way media being used to present information changed, but that the brains of the members of the N-Gen/D-Gen have physically changed along with their thinking patterns.

I agree with Sanantone; between text-speak and twitter, spelling has become atrocious. Even with my own (college level) students I seem horrendous spelling and grammar used in assignments and discussions, even after I demonstrate to them that they can use tools like MS Word to type everything up, check the spelling and grammar and then cut and paste to turn it in. I also agree that Myspace was a lot more functional than Facebook. I'm not much of a blogger, but I liked creating the occasional humorous stories in the blog section.
-T

[Johann]

I have zero social media accounts. The dumbest move I ever made on the Internet was a Facebook Account. I kept it less than a year.

I DO log onto YouTube, particularly YouTube University. I've downloaded all kinds of lectures in many subjects and there's some good instruction on various IT hardware, software and programming topics that appeal to me. YouTube is a treasure-trove, musically. One can get ANY kind of music instruction free and I've got a lot of good things on music from around the world.

I don't have a Pinterest account, but I've "landed" there a lot of times. Members post on their special interests and I share some of them. It's led me to good info and pictures on such diverse things as A-frame cabins and homes, Mountain Dulcimers and antique guitars.

I have no interest in "social networking" as it's done on Facebook, Twitter and the others. My family is a local phone-call away and I get to see them in person. I know some interesting people in other countries and use email for that. My opinion: Social media use breeds illiteracy - or at least preserves it.

Johann

[burbuja0512]

Quick comment about Pinterest - I had never really considered using it or understood the appeal, but my hair stylist uses it quite a bit professionally. She will pin looks and styles for her clients to see and it helps her highlight what she's able to do and shows that she's current in the fashion world.

I love Facebook because with kids + work, I have no time for a huge social life, so it's a great way to stay in touch. Of course I am a HUGE advocate for LinkedIn... so nice to be able to virtually network with people all over the world!

Like anything, there is potential for use and abuse, but as long as the social media accounts are used cautiously, keeping in mind that anyone can possibly see what you're posting, I think that they're a great way to keep friends that I wouldn't normally have time to have in my life right now.