Social Media? (Thursday Writing Essential)

In many of my posts, I’ve admitted I can be really dumb. This prompt will show that: I haven’t the foggiest idea what a social site is. I can guess, but I’m usually wrong when I do that. So, I’ll start off with Gather; I think I’m on pretty safe ground by mentioning that one.

When I stopped writing professionally, I looked around for some place I could post my writing so my family and close friends could read it easily. Someone suggested Gather, I joined in Dec 2005, and started posting a few things. None of my family or friends bothered to join Gather, but they did read my stories, so I figured I’d stay with it. To show how silly I can be, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I found out that the points could be valuable.

Some time (either before or after I joined Gather) someone suggested I join MySpace to keep track of some of the magazines for which I wrote. I joined and found that it offered a blog function. Not being into blogging, I found that I could list my Gather writing in a blog post and any of my friends could link back to Gather. I don’t think I’ve been back on MySpace for three or more years. Oh, my younger daughter was shocked that I had a MySpace page!

Next was Twitter. Three young ladies suggested I join so they could keep track of what I was doing and so I could see what they were doing. Okay, I’m a sucker for a young lady’s suggestion and to have three of them make the same suggestion -- I joined. I now use it just to link to my Gather posts. Other than that, I see no use for it.

A few years ago I found that I had about seventy cousins that I had never known about. We traded e-mails for some time and then one of them told me she was on Facebook and told me I should join so we could share notes and photos. Yep, I joined. I put up a few photos and now use it basically just to link to my Gather posts. Reminds me that I’m over due for that.

What’s the other one? Sidetick, Sidebucks? I think it’s something like that. One of my Gather friends extended me an invitation and said she would get a bunch of points if I joined so I did. Typical of me, I was a member for several months before I realized I could make some money there. At the time, I received a thousand points for clicking on a blog post and making a comment. I was getting a thousand points a day for doing not much of anything and then they changed the point awards. It got down to the point where I was getting only three or four points a day and I haven’t been back there for several months. Probably should go back and see if I can’t get something out of them.

I joined one of those high school sites but every time I click on something I get a pop-up saying I have to upgrade to the (paid) membership to access that function.

I think that’s pretty much my complete experience with social media -- if there’s anything else, I’ve completely forgotten it. From what I’ve written, you might infer, and you’d be right, that I’m not a social creature. I’m not on Gather to chat; I’m here to share my writing and read the work of other writers.

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Prompt: What do you think about social media? Has it helped you reconnect with old friends? Have you made new friends? Have you had any bad experiences with it?