Social Media Time Management

I read an article this week about how to manage your time on social media sites. I know this is something all of us in Gee's class have been struggling with. We have signed up for o many things that we forget about them or just don't have enough time to be actively involved in each of them. Kelli Matthews article "Where Do You Find the Time? Social Media Time Management Tips" listed a few great points.
First, she says it takes time to create a new habit. For the first few weeks you'll have to work at making social media a habit. This is very true. After I got a Twitter account I didn't think it was useful and completely forgot about it. Just recently I forced myself to go on Twitter every now and then and I have really come to enjoy it. I have even found my Uncle and Grandpa on Twitter!
Matthews also says it is important to participate and not only look. My sister has Facebook and I never thought she really used it ever. No one really wrote on her wall, she didn't write on other people's walls and she only had about 14 photos tagged to her. This was until I came home one weekend and saw that she would go on Facebook all the time, but just to look. I don't find this very beneficial because she is not getting anything out of it, just some snooping.
I found Matthews' article interesting and beneficial. The only thing I think Matthews should add is that you have to enjoy the specific form of social media. We have signed up for so many things in class, and a few of them I really do not enjoy. If I don't enjoy using the specific form of social media I will not want to spend any time on it. For example, Utterli is not a website I would ever use outside of social media class. I just don't see the point, especially since I already have Twitter.
Overall I really liked Matthews article. At the end she asks "What tips would you add?" If you would like to add your own tips click here http://www.prosintraining.com/2009/01/where-do-you-find-time-social-media.html and comment!

Too Many Online Friends? Time to Delete.

This week I read an article called "Friends, Until I Delete You."  This article talked about the "Whopper Sacrifice" which was a deal Burger King made that offered people a free hamburger if they would delete 10 of their Facebook friends.  Everyone knows that Facebook sends an alert when your friends do almost anything, but "defriending" is not one of those alerts.  Burger King took this opportunity to send out notifications to people letting them know they were being "defriended" in exchange for a hamburger.  This is the reason Facebook suspended the program.  In the end Burger King's campaign had ended 234,000 friendships!
I did not hear of this campaign while it was happening but I found this article hilarious.  I know my friends and I definitely would have defriended 10 people in exchange for a hamburger.  I have defriended more than 10 people and got nothing in return.  This article brought up a major question within social media: when is it ok to defriend someone?
While I would love Facebook to be an intimate form of social media that I just share with my friends and family, this is not the case.  The proper etiquette on Facebook is to accept almost anyone that you have ever met.  Freshman year of college I would go out and meet hundreds of people, only to find the next morning that they had asked to be my friend  on Facebook.  You obviously can't reject them.  What if they end up being in one of your classes, what if you end up becoming best friends with them?  This led to a huge increase in my number of "friends."  But now, being a junior, I just recently decided to defriend many of my Facebook friends.  My criteria for defriending was "Will I ever see this person again?"  If the answer was no, they got the boot.  
On the reverse side, however, I don't like being defriended.  Not even by people I know I'll never see again.  That moment when you click on a "friend's" picture so you can be directed to their profile only to find that you can no longer look at their profile stings a little, doesn't it?  
So what is the proper defriending etiquette?  Is there any?  Should you keep all of your "friends?"
Maybe this is a chance for a new form of social media to begin where it's acceptable to only be friends with your real friends, and people you've only met once won't be hurt when you deny them.  

Social Media in the Classroom

Since being in this class for a few weeks now I have noticed just how much social media is used in my every day life.  Not only is social media becoming more prominent within businesses and organizations but it is also being used in classrooms.  I have noticed this especially in my psychology classes.  In my Abnormal Psychology class we are learning about various mental illnesses.  My teacher shows at least two YouTube clips a day to show us how a person with a specific disorder acts.  The clips are always extremely interesting to watch but they also allow me to better understand what I am learning.  This is a great tactic that more and more teachers are beginning to adapt.  Social media is now becoming a part of our daily lives and I really wonder how it will progress as time goes on.  Even by the end of this semester I expect changes in social media.  

I feel like I should post something...

I haven't posted anything on this blog yet, so I figured I would.  It's only been a few weeks into class and I already feel like I've learned so much about social media.  I now have a blog, Twitter, Ning, Wiki...and probably more that I can't even remember!  It's been fun to play around with all of the different features on these sites and figure out what they're all about.  Christie and I have a presentation on Wiki's coming up so soon I should be a Wiki expert.  Wish I had more exciting things to say, but I don't.