As I continue to debate the conundrum of presenting myself to the public, another interesting thought came to me. Facebook and Twitter are "social" networking sites, are they not? The definition of social is: pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations. Okay, got it. So, those sites are there so I can communicate with friends, right?
Well, that was true until businesses decided to use it as a marketing tool. Just try to escape blatant self-promotion or advertising on social networking sites today. It won't happen. Yes, some are successful at balancing interesting, eccentric, or informative information amidst moments of self-important advertising of their services, but many are simply in it for the business aspects.
No, there isn't anything wrong with it. It was bound to happen. And while I tweet with reckless abandon, I also don't use my real name. Yes, some know who I am, but many do not. Followers may know that I am a freelance writer, but I don't really sell my wares. If they happen to enjoy my personality and it ends up in job, great! But that isn't my goal.
Note that on Facebook, I do NOT friend people who I don't know or who were not recommended personally by someone I do know. I don't have hundreds of friends, in fact I have less than one hundred. I like it that way. I can scroll past the Farmville and Mafia Wars updates and quickly see the personal updates of my friends in just a few minutes. I can respond to them personally because I'm not wading through a lot of rubbish from people I don't care about. I like that.
Facebook and Twitter are my avenues of interpersonal communication during my workday. Working from home, while full of advantages, can be a lonely enterprise. My social media conversations are my lifeline.
My goal is to exchange ideas with a broad spectrum of people. To learn from others and explore new viewpoints. To chat with old friends and make new ones. Oh, and to have fun. If, at some point, I decide that it is important to me to use these avenues for shameless self promotion, I will have to create new pages to present myself... At the moment, though, I think I'll keep the "social" in my networking.
Hi, WotV - my sister's blog has a lot of questioning on the line between personal and public. I have linked back to when she started and was writing about it more. It is interesting how much personal stuff people are willing to display in public. You definitely seem to have fun with the tweets and all, and if I was still working from home, I know I'd probably get nothing done. I have met great people through the internet, though, as you know.
ReplyDelete-rose.