A Beginner’s Guide to Social Media (by a beginner): Lesson 4

I'm ashamed to say that I've used most of these (ashamed because my assumption is that my online presence is in place of 'real' social interaction?) at some point!

I used Myspace at school and during sixth form, using it to communicate with friends from previous school and also those that I saw every day. Sometimes I posted the questionnaires that you fill out and pass on to friends via messages (which used to be passed on by email). I remember being fairly fickle with backgrounds, and was a little 'emo' with them (before emos officially existed) and was usually attempting to make some sort of statement about how terribly complicated life was. Apart from using it to communicate with friends whilst abroad in the summer after sixth form, I used it little in the past few years, before deleting my account about six months ago when I realised that it could be found on a search engine. I was uncomfortable with the 'old me' being available for viewing via the public questionnaires and photos.

Like most of my friends, I dabbled with Bebo, but it was just a slightly more attractive and simpler version of Myspace, and it didn't really take off. I have also deleted my Bebo account for the reasons stated above. Interestingly, even without an account I found my brother's girlfriend on Bebo and was able to tell him details about her that he didn't know. (I prefer to call it responsible researching rather than stalking!)

Facebook is probably the site I visit most, and now that I have an iPhone I check it constantly. I use it to stay in touch with old friends, teachers and relatives around the world as well as uni/school friends. My grandparents use it to keep up with my life; they phone me less now, but will refer to my conversations, statuses and photos when they write to me! I find that people exclusively use Facebook to invite people to events, which means that I feel out of the loop if I don't log on for even a few days. It worries me a little that it feels like 'interaction' when you surf people's profiles and discover what they're doing, without ever speaking to them.

I use twitter occasionally , but I don't give out my name on other networking sites, and use it to comment on Middle East affairs.

Youtube is mainly a method of procrastination for me, but I also have a channel, and have posted videos from orphanage trips and university events. I avoid commenting on videos, or reading comments, because I find them overwhelmingly antagonistic and irrelevant to the video itself.

Last summer I wrote a Wordpress blog while I was at the orphanage, linking it with a Snapfish account for photos. I'll use it again this year, and post the new updates to Facebook too.

Although I use a lot of social networking sites I think I'm quite careful about what I put on them in terms of personal information (or I have been since I came to uni anyway!). I plan to 'purge' my Facebook of photos when I start applying for 'proper' jobs (and already restrict access to them), and have deleted a fair number of people I met in Freshers week and haven't seen since, and people from school that I didn't really know.

Through school, I mainly used MSN (does that count??)

Never really understood the bebo/ myspace thing. But I do use facebook MASSIVELY. Girls at my school would use bebo until they were about 15 and then switch to facebook.

I use wikipedia all the time but only to find out things - I've never added anything to it. And often youtube. Those are good. I can't understand the point of twitter (and I think it has a strange name).

Don't really go on any forums, although my parents frequently visit the 'Maths Teaching Forum' and, ashamedly, the 'Sword Forum'. And as for blogs...this is the first one I've been on:-)

I used to use Bebo and Myspace, but eventually tired of them because:

A) They were pretty much for teenagers who rant about self-esteem issues.
B) I seemed to get too many friend requests from complete strangers.
C) People were given too much control over the appearance of their profiles. Half the profiles looked messy, as though the owners had sneezed on their CSS stylesheets.

When I was first invited to join Facebook I was very hesitant since I feared it would just be the same. However, it was not and pretty much still is not, hence why I still use it to this very day.

A) It was initially geared towards university students and still feels that way somehow, even though it is now also used by teenagers.
B) Only genuine friends/acquaintances seem to find my profile.
C) Profiles cannot be stylised by amateurs. However, one criticism I will make on the aesthetic front is that there are too many applications cluttering up peoples' profiles. I don't care which Disney princess you are or if you've found a lost cow, I just want to stay in touch.

I also use YouTube to watch video, and also to host it whenever I need to, but that is not often. Wikipedia I also use, but to find information rather than to contribute it. Twitter I have no interest in.

Socialite that I am, I've made use of first Bebo, and then Facebook - jumping on the bandwagon on both occasions. Never really seen Myspace as a craze in the same way - it's the haunt of specifically music enthusiasts, whilst the vast majority of folk in my social circles were registering to publish their personal details for all the world to see. To abstain from such fads was to invite social rejection.

Other than those networking sites, not really participated in any of the others - I'm a Wikipedia leech; I take and complain, but refuse to contribute - I rarely even frequent Youtube. In school, university and work, social networking seems to be compulsory. I happily count myself as one of those people who would never dream of joining such sites were it not for peer pressure. Social conforming lives on in the digital age.