social media

recently, i've read several articles and studies (here's one, but there are a bunch out there) about the benefits of blogging for stay-at-home moms. it helps them feel more connected to the outside world and their families, among other benefits. i generally agree with them. during this phase of my life, where i just moved to a new place and it's hard to get out with three small children that are on three different schedules, being able to both read other people's blogs and write my own blog makes me feel like i still know what is going on with people that i care about and with the world in general.

i realize that there are drawbacks to it as well - a false sense of keeping in touch with people without actually knowing more about what's going on than what they put on their blog, the danger of comparing your worst to other people's well-edited best, materialism from seeing so many amazing things posted about, and the slight neglect that may come from spending too much time on my phone/computer (this is the worst one for me, and i always feel better about life when i try to confine it to a few set times a day when the kids are asleep). but when i don't have the opportunity for real face time, when my phone reception is terrible and even if i can make a call, my children don't tolerate it for long, and when it gives me a little sanity while staying home with three small children, i think that the pros outweigh the cons. 

then there's facebook. i fought facebook for a long time. i refused to get an account and rarely checked it once i did. i'm not going to lie, there are still a lot of things that i hate about facebook. i hate the interface for so many reasons and hate a lot of the ways people use it (oh, the horrible grammar that lives on facebook...). but, i've learned to embrace some aspects of it and i get on there a couple of times a day to check in. i think i've posted a total of two times on it, but i comment every once in a while and i use it a lot as a news source for my family and friends. after google reader, it is my second social media intake source.

i got a twitter account (@debrapeck) a few years ago because my friend was having a baby and they were updating people on the birth, etc. via twitter. i just checked and it looks like i have 8 tweets on my account since it was created. i follow six people and get on there every few days to check things out. randy tweets quite a bit, so it is a good way for me to see what he's tweeting about.

i should tweet more. it fits well with my sense of humor. i make jokes in my head in little snippets and love the idea of hashtags for furthering a joke, too. i just haven't really gotten into tweeting and don't have much of an audience, so i often feel like there's no point.

maybe i'll start tweeting more. because i don't have enough going on in my life right now. but once again, i am looking for ways to communicate with the outside world and this would probably be fulfilling for me.

oh, google+, i had such high hopes for you. it had the promise of being a facebook-like space without being facebook. facebook with a google interface? yes, please. i wanted everyone to jump over there and leave facebook in the dust. but it didn't really happen. facebook may have a terrible product, but it was first to market with a great concept and no one wants to risk being left behind by switching to google+. that's the problem - everyone might switch if they knew that their friends would switch too, but nobody wants to take the first step. and so, it sits, stagnant.

i go on google+ once a month.

finally, there's instagram (debbypeck). i downloaded the instagram app when i first got my iphone and then promptly forgot about it until we went to mccall a few weeks ago and randy's aunt and cousin were talking about how their family is all on instagram. a few days ago, i opened up the app and started messing around with it a little bit.

here's why i like instagram: it is like speed blogging. if i take a picture with my phone and don't have time to sit down and do a whole post about it, i can still throw it up on instagram. or, if i take a picture of something that's not really blog worthy, but would still be fun to post, i can do it on instagram. plus, there are some friends on there that really don't blog, but post frequently on instagram and it's a fun way to keep up with them.

we'll see how it goes, but i think that i'll stick with it for a while and see how i like it. i don't want it to take away from blogging because i know there are people that won't check instagram, but do look forward to pictures, etc. on my blog. plus, i like being able to write a little more sometimes, and instagram only allows for a small caption (with hashtags!). it fits a social media niche that i didn't have before though.

now, if i could just get these all together in one place... (google+!)