Blog: Social Networking Sites

As someone so only uses three social networking sites, I seem to be far behind in the Social Media game to many. However, I use what I find to be necessary or convenient for me. After all, social media apps are meant to cater to our needs and it isn't necessary for us to use all of them. The needs I have in my apps are: can I communicate with people?, is this app aiding to my quality of life in any way? and, Is this app updating me on things that I would like to be kept up do date on? The Social Networking sites I use do not have to answer all of these questions but they should answer at least one of them each.

My three sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I occasionally look through Reddit threads and will go into that. First of all, Pinterest is a highly interactive site that allows one to post links from their own or other sites in order to create Pin boards. These boards serve to organize ones interests into many different topics and subtopics. For example, if I like hairstyles, I would have a Hair board with the subsections of Braids, Updo's and Downdo's. People see recommended pins as well as pins that other people post based on the "Topics" they follow. I can follow people or topics and that allows for more organization and customization of the pics I see.

Twitter keeps me updated on Worldwide trends. It also offers the customization of location trends I want to see. I have mine set to New York and Worldwide. For example, just yesterday I was wondering why YouTube wasn't working for me, and in just 10 minutes, #YoutubeDOWN was trending worldwide. This feature could help someone in specific regions see problems happen in their location and make it easier to access different ways to help people out. I can also follow celebrities, authors or even friends who's lives I be interested in keeping updated about. Another great things about Twitter is that the notifications can be turned on and off because I don't need to know about everyone 24/7. Facebook works in pretty much exactly the same way. Event though the format is different and it isn't a constant stream of people's actual posts, and often recommendations of things I'd like to see, I still like this site for the same networking aspect as well as the fact that the chat feature has a different feel to it than Twitter's DM's. I feel like I'm having more of a conversation than a temporary side bar.

I look at Reddit threads mostly for entertainment and so that is why I do not have an actual account. But I also like that I don't need an account in order to see trending threads. Reddit offers a someone more formal forum for intellectuals to converse about either oddly specifics topics or completely board and random ones. For me, it incites a feeling of understanding what the social mindset of people at large. It's like knowing the wisdom of the crowd by just asking what their wisdom is regarding a topic is. That fascinated me because we don't have these kinds of random discussions in person with such a large amount of people, but Reddit allows everyone to have input in such matters. It even allows us to like or dislike comments on threads so as to see what most people agree with. This interactivity of not only people with a site, but also people with other strange people is what I love about Reddit, even though it doesn't check off any of my requirements.