Blog-of-the-month: Best Social Networking Updates?

What are the most clever…fun…pungent and potent…social media updates that you’ve seen or posted yourself? Comment below this anchor post to respond. More below…

Dear Riehlife Villagers,

I’m launching a series of blog-of-the-month topics by asking our community to discuss a single piece of work:

–a book,
–a play or film,
–a piece of art or music,
–insights on the creative process or culture.

Since the mission of Riehlife is to create connections through the arts and across cultures, you’ve got a big range to roam in. As always I welcome guest posts.

I’ll identity the topic in an anchor post such as this one. Then you add your point of view in the comments section.

Any suggestions for future Blogs-of-the-Month?

Comment away!

All the best,

Janet Riehl

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13 Comments

  1. Here are a few of mine that I’m partial to:

    –Sparkling wonderland of snow & ice above the Mississippi. Cardinals throw snow flakes pecking for seeds.

    –Snow days all ’round. Jagged ice juts through Mississippi waters underneath. Coldest in 10 years. Midwest trying to be Alaska.

    –It’s not safe to linger in the airport restrooms anymore it seems. Wish the terrorist had been from Peoria rather than Nigeria.

    –Happy Boxing Day. When half a ham will do, saw it in two. That’s what Pop did to prepare for our company dinner.

    –“A man must have something to cling to. Without that he is as a pea vine sprawling in search of a trellis.” E. B. White “Years of Wonder”

    –“The bigger the name, the worse it is when trouble calls.”–Dick Cavett

    –From Lake County to Santa Rosa…200 hairpin turns and as many hills. Made it in record time.

  2. Susan Tweit’s series of Haiku posts, such as this one:

    HAIKU FROM DAWN

    First light blazes red
    then Wow! hot pink, orange, rose
    and finally gold

  3. It’s a great idea Janet, especially when the World Wide Web is so rapidly becoming the medium for our social life. I think that the most valuable role of social networking and media sites is in cutting the distance between people of different cultural backgrounds and distant parts of the world. By allowing regular free-of-charge contact between humans across the world, these sites encourage better understanding and friendship opportunities, lessening xenophobia and also improving communication of ideas and feelings. But of course there are cons in view as well. I think your blog can become a platform of opinions on the pros and cons of social networking/media sites; how these affect and benefit the users; how they relate to art and culture, and so on.

    We can perhaps single out a topic like ‘Are Social Networking Sites Really Useful?’ or any such broad topic. The opinions coming in response can contain hints to more issues. So we can develop a discussion here and at the end of each discussion, you can post a summary of conclusion of that particular thread of discussion.

    Wishing you well as always.

  4. Nan…what an evocative image! Tell more.

    Ernest, you would know best about “cutting the distance between people of different cultural backgrounds and distant parts of the world” since you are over on the other side from me.

    Pros and cons of social networking/media sites; how these affect and benefit the users; how they relate to art and culture, and so on?

    Good topic. Pro: they are revelatory and connective. Con: They are flattening and over-simplifying.

    ‘Are Social Networking Sites Really Useful?’ Yes, depending on knowing the use you want to put them to and then sticking to that purpose. Friendship? Marketing? Intellectual tickling? Book and movie recommendations?

    I’ve been using my status updates as a record of thoughts, themes and topics I’m passionate about, listing books and movies I see.

    In other words: Micro blogging. This has freed me from following up some of these topics in more length on Riehlife.

    Janet

  5. Thanks.. for the record, it was at a Renaissance fair.. and minutes before I had been talking to a fellow in full Saxon era armor.. and would love to have knockedf him on the ground in front of everyone and seen what uses we could have put hor his, ahem, sword. He was magnificent. But I was about to read Helen Hollicks’s Sea Witch so was in the mood for a pirate.

    Here’s another of my social network status updates:

    “My computer is why I don’t own a sledgehammer.”

    This is after having our network router stop working. The two new ones we tried which promised to take only 15 minites to set up wound up taking a couple days and over $200. We hired someone to come do it when Jim could not figure out what the problem was. Well, you may know I am legally blind. The woman who came is deaf. I had to get the ISP on the phone, then write down what the snotty tech guy said, she would read it, then would write what I was to tell him, then I would have to write “Larger please” so I could read it, then would report that to the tech guy.

    The upshot was that we found out our modem was too old and we had to buy a new one.. from the IDP of course. And two intelligent, proud, capable women were made to feel helpless and inadequate.. partially by the tech guy but mostly by the situation. What a circus.

    Social networking: I know a LOT of authors who are on the things.. including me.. who really don’t have the time and wind up sending promos to each other anyway… I am sure they ignore mine as much as I do theirs. I also fail to see the purpose of there being so many of these sites. So far I like Facebook best.. the rest seem thinner at worst and clones at best.

    So Janet, is this what you were looking for?

    Nan
    Promo for my book.. tee hee.. An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England
    1-4196-5669-4

  6. Nan,

    This story is too funny and definitely on the spot.

    I’ve been using my updates to entertain myself as well as track my reading and viewing.

    There is an application that links Twitter, Plaxo, Linked-In and Facebook. I think each social networking site is useful if you know how to use it and enjoy it. I am most active on Facebook. Yet, I post on Twitter first now so I know that the character count is under 140.

    I’ve found it’s an interesting discipline to condense experience so much.

    Janet

  7. I’m working with Dr. Greg Martinez, DVM, to help him promote his new book Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health. It’s a wonderful book that addresses many chronic ailments with nutrition (change in diet, addition of essential oils and supplement with healthful human food). It’s taken us a while, however, to find the common denominator to his message. But I think it’s this: Every animal is an individual and should be fed accordingly. That’s the problem with commercial dog foods…it’s one-size-fits-all. Dr. Greg does not feel that the solution is in mature dog diets or puppy diets or even overweight diets. He just wants pet owners to create a healthful combination of foods adjusted to the individual needs. His book shows pet owners how to do this.

    I now have him Tweeting: “Are you feeding YOUR dog or someone else’s pet?” It’s beginning to build interest in his Dr. Greg’s work.

  8. Connecting with people across cultures is a big plus for social networking sites. But I can’t be confident in claiming that it actually helps overcome or significantly reduce prejudice and stereoypes. I think emails an more personal contact in needed after all since without these, social networking sites are reduced to exchanges of occasional chatting.

  9. Ernest,

    I agree…social networking skims the surface. It’s only through the aggregates of the status updates that one gains a more in-depth picture of the person. We’ve become e-buddies over the course of several years. Using the email chat device has provided at least a typed conversation that’s in real time.

    Kendra,

    “Are you feeding YOUR dog or someone else’s pet?” is a cool Twitter slogan. Does he tweet this over and over again, or…?

    Janet

  10. Janet, we’ve just started testing it. It’s working well and we Tweet it from time to time. But I haven’t created a schedule for Tweeting it regularly. I probably should…but I’ll worry about that once I finish his press kit. Now we just Tweet it whenever we think to.

  11. Janean,

    Thanks for the comment and the link. I just left a long comment there. Also, I’m so happy you’re using the search function. I only recently twigged on it myself.

    I did check out Karen Smith’s blog link. Interesting thoughts on the Facebook Ecosystem. Underlying her three types are the questions of value and adeptness.

    Janet

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