EDITED TO ADD MORE NETWORKS I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT…
Y’all, I’m tired. I’m trying to keep up with all these different social networking sites and it’s draining me of all my energy. There’s nothing relaxing about trying to keep up with yourself and everyone else on a dozen different websites. What info should I divulge? Who should I let be my friend? Should I actually list my real city and age and gender? I have two major motivations and several minor ones for trying to keep up with every single social networking site I can find.
MAJOR MOTIVATIONS
- I’d love to promote Sew Petit for free as much as I can. I’m hoping that when readers come to this blog they’ll not only get a healthy dose of my neuroses life experiences, but also will click on that cute little button on the top right over there in the side column and check out all that cute little merchandise I have for sale there. What?!?! You haven’t done that yet? Go ahead…the rest can wait…
- I’m desperate to keep up with technology so I’ll be up to date when my girls start becoming technologically savvy. I don’t want to be left out and left behind when it comes to knowing what they’re into and what they’re up against.
MINOR MOTIVATIONS
- I enjoy blogging, especially (and I really should put this one as a major motivation), and all the other voyeuristic mechanisms out there that allow me to be up to speed with about a million people yet responsible to none of them (more about that later).
- It’s fun.
- uh, when I think of more I’ll add them.
BUT I FEEL LIKE I’M SWIMMING UPSTREAM!
I can’t keep up! Here’s what involved with right now:
- MySpace
- MyChurch
- YouTube
- My own blog
- Family Website
- Business Website
- Netvibes
- Flickr
- Digg
- HubPages
- Blogher
- I was on Nowheremen until I went on vacation and totally lost touch
- StumpleUpon
- Team Sugar
- Cafe Mom
I’m sure there’s more that I’m forgetting and have probably forgotten my user id and password. And I’m sure there are thousands that I’m missing out on. But I can’t get enough! For some reason I feel the need to set up an account with any and every website that has a social aspect to it.
HERE’S THE PROBLEM
I am losing touch with the people I should be networking with the most: my neighbors. My next door neighbor’s wife passed away on 17 December. Know when I found out? 4 months later… That’s pathetic. I hadn’t seen them since the summer probably. They’re my next door neighbors!! And I’m worried about keeping up with you folks. What is wrong with this picture!?!? We do take part in many of the social outings that our neighborhood puts together. But there are some people on my street that don’t participate in those. I cannot tell you their names, their jobs, their kids’ or their dogs’ names.
In my opinion internet social networking is allowing us to do what we want to do–become more social (i.e. be more liked)–without having to do much actual feet-to-the-ground work. It’s much easier to post cute posts and random sayings on the internet. It’s much harder to actually talk to someone and try to be their friend in person.
THE SOLUTION
The obvious solution would be for me to get off my sorry butt, bake some brownies and go introduce myself to some neighbors. But I won’t do that here. We’re leaving in two months and that would be a little weird…”Hi, I’m Vicki. I’m moving shortly but can we be friends before I move?”. This will be my goal for our new neighborhood. To make real-live friends that have real-live lives that I can interact in. And if I stick my foot in my mouth then I can always come back here and lament to my million friends that I’ve never seen before.
Do you feel the same as I do? What social networking sites are you involved in that I haven’t listed? (See how I sneakily add that in so I can fall deeper into my habit?).
Not So SAHM 
I agree- my husband just asked me the other day if I had a my space page to promote my blog! I don’t have time for that ! I can’t even keep track off all the networking sites! I am pretty involved in my neighborhood and church, plus my friends that we have left behind from all the other duty stations where we have lived. I would encourage you to bake the brownies anyway- who knows what could happen in 2 months! You might make a lifetime friend.
Thank you for successfully making me feel loads better about my (lack of) social networking involvement. I have a My Space (which I check once a week), and do Twitter on a daily basis. Netvibes is my start-up page. Other than those–and my blog, of course–I do no others. MyChurch? Digg? HubPages? Blogher? What are these things you speak of, and where did they get such weird names????? 🙂
Whew…and here I thought I was spreading myself too thin. You have made me feel so much better. Wait…that wasn’t your intent? Truly sorry.
At least I’m a faithful Sew Petit customer. Hey readers–go buy stuff from Sew Petit!!!!!!
Leigh Anne, Thank you for successfully making me feel loads worse about my social networking involvement, :)! A lot of these “networks” I seldom check, or update rather. You know my MySpace page hasn’t been updated since before Christmas. You introduced me to Netvibes the other day when you Twitted from it (thank you, I think 🙂 ). I suggest googling the others and getting lost in this world of internet ADD…I must get back to networking…
I think it is important for parents to be on the up and up of technology. My friend found out the hard way that her ten year old daughter was my-spacing as an 18 yr old. Luckily, no one was hurt. The daughter, however, is on restriction for the rest of her life.
I stay alert to myspace because of my step sons and a few other connections. That way when they do personally interact with them, I have something to talk to them about. I blog because my family and friends like to hear about my life. Outside of that, my life is too full for me to be on everyoutlet available. I try to cultivate the relationships around me daily and in person, while maintaining the distance relationships through the net. Although, when I am pressed for time, the net goes first. Ineveitably though, I pick the net back up at some point.
i think a little of both works well…i’m glad you reminded me that i should make some brownies, too, for when i go over to let the neighbors know that they’re danny’s emergency contact when he starts “school” in the fall. blog neighbors don’t work that great for that sort of thing, i find.