Social Media Today blogger Elizabeth Lupfer wrote a post entitled ‘Confessions of a Social Media Addict’; I decided that I wanted to write a post about my addiction too.
I was given my first cell phone when I was 14 – it was a Motorola Star Tac
– yeah, I thought I was pretty badass. I’d let all my friends use it to make calls to their parents and to other friends – it was a communal phone indeed. Oh, and on my walks home from school I’d call my boyfriend (the one I’d just seen at school) and spend a cool 60 minutes no doubt discussing poignant matters. Then my parents received an $800 phone bill: my precious Star Tac was taken away until I learned that the cell phone was solely for emergencies err..
Lo and behold, the evolution of wireless communication evolved – soon I was able to text, send emails, instant chat, Facebook, Twitter, blog, Skype, share stories, etc., which did not remedy my impending addiction. Now that I’ve prefaced this – here are my social media confessions:
Confession #1: I can’t escape myself (you can’t escape me either)
If we’re friends on Foursquare, you know where I am – almost all the time. I won’t forget the first time I was sort of creeped out by a random guy that approached me at The Smiling Buddha waving his iPhone in my face with a giant photo of me on the screen. ‘IS THIS YOU?’ he yelled over the blaring music. Bewildered, I nodded. ‘You checked in here on Foursquare, it’s nice to meet you!’ I suppose I was asking for it – the whole point of Foursquare is to connect with people who are at the same venue as you – and that’s what we did. Aside from the location based updates – I’ve been accused of Twitter over share. I change the way I use Twitter all the time –
Sometimes I tweet about the most irrelevant things that come to my mind. Jess, Mel and I just booked a trip to NYC – I was stoked so I sent that tweet.
I like to RT the people that I follow – it shows that you pay attention to someone other than yourself. I appreciate when I’m looking for an answer and my Twitter friends help me out by retweeting. I also like to RT Bite and AUX (for obvious reasons).
Notwithstanding, there are the times when I actually post articles with substance; going through my Google Reader encourages me to share super rad news that I assume my followers would like to know about – FREE MobileMe – yes please!
topics of over share: Blackberry, iPhone, cupcakes, music, fashion, hipsters
Confession #2: I will make you my instant digital bff
Here’s the story of Abby and me: I checked into The Grilled Cheese (where I am still the Mayor) and noticed that ‘Abby’ had checked in as well. I noticed a girl looking over at us but totally didn’t recognize her. I turned to Mel (who also checked it) and asked ‘Who is Abby Ho?’ to which Abby spoke up and said, ‘Are you Crystal?’ Ah! Another Foursquare connection. Turns out Abby was following my tweets – I followed her back and realized that we had too much in common (Gossip Girl, Jenny Humphrey, friends who went to our respective high schools, similar music/fashion taste, a love for cupcakes and more). We then became Facebook friends, she appeared in various blog posts, and we @replied each other incessantly. If I meet you at a networking event, I will add you – I will try and make you my bff and find out everything about you digitally. I’m more inclined to Facebook friend people before I follow them on Twitter only because there is so much noise on Twitter that I like to filter stuff out. Facebook is a safe bet for finding out what people are about – avatar judging anyone?
Confession #3: I jump on the beta bandwagon
Send me all your beta invites – I play with beta sites like I used to with Barbies. The word beta is like a magical password that unlocks the ability to gloat to all your geek friends about an exclusive club. Oh God, I’m a dork.
Confession #4: I horizontal tweet/facebook/blog
When I had my Blackberry, things were different; I was able to set my phone to power off at a certain time (and I did after a long battle). My iPhone doesn’t seem to have this option therefore forcing me to leave the device on (gasp!) ALL NIGHT LONG.
Forget turning my ringer off, I need my notifications – that’s why my alerts are pushed (you think I’d just drain my battery for fun)? Instead of counting sheep, reading a book or watching a movie I’d rather read people’s tweets. Horizontal tweeting is when I @reply the most – I’m bored: I pay attention to even the most trivial tweets. What I love about my iPhone is the Tumblr app – I can blog from anywhere – including my bed. I generally tend to peruse the photos from the past day or two and if I find a muse-worthy one, I blog about it. Of course my Tumblr auto-shares my latest entry to both my Facebook and my Twitter – so if you see a 3:25am post by me – I’m likely in bed.
So there are some of my confessions. Leave me a comment with some of yours – we’re all friends here!
