Antisocial Media

Yes, I have a blog, which you're reading. I have Twitter. I have MySpace and Facebook. That's a lot for someone who is essentially antisocial. Oh, I get together with people sometimes and talk and laugh and even enjoy myself, but even then, I let others do most of the talking and I observe. That's just me.

So what am I doing with all of these social media accounts? To be honest, I don't know. It started a couple of years ago with a blog. I posted to it every so often for my own enjoyment, mostly thoughts on politics and such. Of course, the only person who read it was my wife, and she knows my politics (and fortunately agrees with them).

Then I started a blog just for my music, thinking I'd use it as a sort of practice log. Of course, that didn't work out the way I'd planned because, as I learned a long time ago, just because it's on a computer that doesn't mean you'll do it.

I created a MySpace page so that I could post some music. I did manage to find a few old friends through it, so it wasn't a total bust. But I've never used it the way most people do, for networking. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've commented on someone else's page.

I'm not sure when/why I logged onto Facebook. I had the account for a year before I even did anything with it. I just never understood it. I still don't really. I've managed to find a couple more old friends through it, and I occasionally update my status and even have my blog forwarding to it, but I just don't understand how to use it.

And then there's Twitter. I update it occasionally as well, but wonder if anyone really cares that I ran out of milk and had to use reconstituted dry milk on my breakfast cereal.

I've read articles on using social media for gaining a larger audience, and I suppose if I had something to give or sell, that might make sense. But even then, that's just not me. I rarely talk to strangers and I don't know how to make small talk. I deleted my old blog out of frustration and created a new one 6 months later, but still rarely write anything significant (including this piece).

I'm often jealous of those who are social, who have a lot of followers on Twitter, who get a lot of comments on their blogs. But in the end, I just don't have what it takes to build a following, and don't really care to do the leg work (finger work?) to learn. Instead, I just log in to see what everyone else has to say, observe the interactions of those virtually around me, and then make use of the greatest antisocial media of all, the off button.