My Social Standards.

1. Connecting: Introduce yourself and tell me why you want to connect

I honestly would rather new followers explain themselves in detail. I enjoy reading what and how others think, even if I don’t always agree. After all, “different folks have different strokes”.

2. Follow, add, friend: or stalk.

I don’t appreciate when people that I do not know or do not have and friends in common with try to add me as a friend. It makes me feel like I’m being stalked, and I only think stalking is appropriate when you know the person- I mean, that’s basically what visiting someone else’s profile is anyway.

3. Privacy, boundaries and safety: can’t a girl get some privacy?

I do not put privacy locks on my profile unless you’re not my friend in the first place. Otherwise, I make sure that the information that is posted on my site or by me is everyone approved. You never know who is reading what is written; there is no such thing as total privacy when it comes to the internet.

4. Signal to noise: here we go again.

I still think twitter is annoying honestly. I don’t care that you’re going to be at work from 4-8, or that you just ate so much you’re full. Sometimes I feel like people are just using their status updates to see how many people are listening to them, but then again I update mine so I’m sort of a hypocrite.

5. Personal data and sharing: …should I leave that out?

I really like to know how different people think, but when you start talking about your best friend’s grandma you have shared too much. Social media is not always about making a connection, but keeping up with them.

6. My networking needs and uses: everyone, or in this case “thing”, deserves a chance.

I’m not really sure what Linkedin is, I have never used it. Myspace was the first way I was socially connected with others on the web, but I used it mostly to cater to my creative side. When Facebook came into the picture, my life changed (not an understatement). I was able to keep up with everyone from school, church, sports, etc. at the same time, whereas with my phone I only talked to my closest friends and family. Twitter, well, I still do not appreciate or understand it. It might be useful in some ways, but not useful enough for my life.

7. The truth: truth or…lie?

I use to hate when people lied about how old they were, or where they lived, or even what their real name is. It is unnecessary, and the social media network would be a lot more useful if everyone told the truth. Plus, no one would have to worry about all the weirdos on the web stalking and killing them.

8. USE IT!: have to admit, I do love social networking.

Everyone should at least try to become a part of a social network. It does have its advantages, and even though it can be very complicated and unnecessary at times, it’s definitely worth a shot. I would recommend Facebook to anyone (except you, mom!).

Red Bar Radio

I had never even heard of a podcast before this blog assignment honestly, and did not want to listen because I don’t normally like talk radio at all, which is what the description made it sound like. As I scrolled through the different podcasts from the link on the class webpage, I decided to listen to Red Bar Radio because it seemed popular and interesting from it’s review (The Red Bar is also my favorite place to eat in Grayton Beach, Florida!). Although it lived up to my expectation as being just like talk radio, it held my attention because it was funny (but crude). The hosts, James Fritz and Kyle Lane, were  lively and seemed excited to be there, joking and drinking the whole time about “stupid” people and the world we live in. Most of the topics they discussed on the show were very racey but very hilarious. I would reccommend this podcast to anyone who likes talk radio and wants to laugh. I’m now curious to what other podcasts would be like.

Blogs

One blog site that I really enjoy visiting is http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/. Although it’s not the most censured site, to say the least, I find myself laughing at almost every text. It’s a great site to have when you need a mood boost, because most of what makes this blog funny are the unfortunate events posted by the people who lived through them via texts.  I feel like I can relate to many of the “nights” the bloggers are posting about, which makes them even easier to laugh at. My friends and I like to send some back and forth through facebook on occasion, but most of the time, a text about them seems more appropriate

Another blog site I like is http://postsecret.blogspot.com/. This blog makes me laugh, cry, sympathize and wonder what the world is coming too. My coworkers and I used to read the secrets when we were suppose to be watching the water at the senior pool (I’m a lifeguard), which in itself is a great example of a secret that would be posted. Most of the secrets I read are depressing, but some are hilarious. I can unfortunately relate to many of the secrets posted, and have even tried to send in a couple myself! It just comes to show you that everyone has a little secret, and we should not be ashamed of anything because 10 to 1, someone else’s secret  is far worse than our own. I like knowing that I’m not the only one with a “dirty little secret” and will probably never get the chance to share mine, but in the mean time I will just stick to reading others.