Day 1 Blog June – Neglect

Oh my has it really been over 12 months since I have blogged. Apparently it has. 2015 just passed by this blog without a second glance. Sorry 2015.

Anyway, it is now Blog June time again and since I have had lots of thinking thoughts lately that I have wanted to get out I have decided to take up the challenge again. I do not expect I will blog everyday but who knows. I may even beat my 2014 record of 20 posts (did I really write that many).

I was wondering what I was going to start with tonight but when in the bathroom earlier it came to me. I seem to have most of my good thoughts in the bathroom. Maybe I should just always work in a bathroom. No on second thoughts ewww and too cold. I think it may be the distraction of going about necessary tasks that clears my mind enough to be able to think unobstructively. Who knows?

So onto tonight’s topic – neglect, more specifically social media neglect.

Con (@flexnib) also touched on this in her blog post for today, as will others I’m sure. For many of us participating in Blog June it is the impetus for us to blog more frequently. I have never been a prolific blogger but as I said earlier 2015 passed by without a single post. It got me thinking about what other social media I have been using and how my usage has changed over the years. So maybe neglect isn’t the right term. It certainly does apply to my website maintenance though. I did a couple of quick updates before starting this post. Hopefully nothing has gone awry as a result. Must check later.

Prior to having Miss A (almost 4 years ago) and at a time where I was heavily active in professional development and the library scene in Australia, I was a regular Twitter user. It was a great tool to create and maintain my PLN (For more info on what a PLN is visit this great post from @acrystelle). Since 2012 though my Twitter usage has declined, my tweets dropped off and even months would go by without even lurking. Recently Eurovision kickstarted my tweeting again and I have been on Twitter a bit more lately. I even sent 2 tweets yesterday while at a conference.

My Facebook use has increased on the other hand since Miss A was born. Before I was more a lurker now I post almost daily. I use it mainly to connect with family and my parents group friends. My Dad who I never thought would own a computer, bought a laptop after Miss A was born and so Facebook is used to keep my parents up to date on her goings on.

I also now use Instagram, although with a private account. I was a late starter to Instagram but I do like it simplistic nature to share photos.

After Facebook though, Pinterest is my most used social media tool. I have found so many ideas for cardmaking, baking, sewing etc on Pinterest. I love it. I have followers and I follow people from all over the world and am less guarded as to who I connect with on Pinterest than on any other social media tool. I guess the less sharing of personal information is the key to this. I don’t know what they do for work, if they work, what food they eat, where they go on holiday, or if they have children: nor do I even care. I just like that they find stuff on the internet that maybe I wouldn’t. And that it is categorised for me.

I don’t tend to use many other social media tools or apps. I haven’t embraced Snapchat or WhatsApp. I don’t tend to use the social networking aspects of Runkeeper or FitBit. I don’t want to overload myself. I can manage Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram (with a little Twitter thrown in) now without getting overloaded or overburdened and I think I will keep it that way. For the time being anyway.

A final point I have noticed about my online habits though is my use of YouTube is growing. Slowly. But growing. Years ago I wouldn’t have thought twice to watch stuff on YouTube, except for the odd music or television clip and I was always quite surprised when I heard teenagers use it a lot. But now I am finding I am watching more how to videos on YouTube. Recently, I made a pin cushion after watching a video on YouTube and soon I will be watching more cake decorating tutorials in my attempt to master how to make Go Jetter character cake toppers for Miss A’s 4th birthday cake.

Well there’s one down, only 29 more to go. I can’t guarantee all posts will be this long, or of any sort of quality but it’s quantity over quality that counts for this right!

Happy blogging everyone.