My Life on Social Media Networks

I started writing this as my cautionary tale. My decision for my current stance on things and what led me to that point. My life on social media, but you know, my reason for my discontent with it all. But if you know me, you know the point flutters about aimlessly while I spend an entire post trying to catch it. Scribbling on and on with random stories that are so far from the original point but I just carry on. Continuing to nail the board with my hammer, knowing that, “eh, eventually it’ll stick to the wall.”

And this ridiculously long post is proof that if you do that, it won’t end well. If you try to wiggle out of a hole you dug yourself into, you might as well just set up a mailbox and figure out how the plumbing is going to work because now you live in that hole. Like I’m currently doing. Contact me in the comments of this post if you need me because I live here now.

So no, you were not supposed to get… *gestures broadly at this entire post*. Trust me, an essay about my history on social media was not on my list of things to blog about. Will you find the read interesting? Maybe! It’s actually fairly possible. I’d say if you were there with me, which there’s a chance you were, then you most definitely will. But even if you weren’t there there, I’d say there’s a pretty good chance you were still there.

Where exactly? I don’t know, you tell me.

The Big Ones

Dwitter

Once upon a time, in a mystical land of fun, excitement, awe, and optimism, I joined social media. This was roughly about 2010. And the first one I joined had a bird for a logo. If you don’t remember which it was, it rhymed with Dwitter. I joined it because at the time, I was all about gaming and was a part of a really cool and tight knit forum (whose community still lives on, btw). And the people of this forum, along with every single other podcast I listened to for gaming, were always going on about being on this network.

I always thought the it was stupid. I always heard the name and cringed that people would be so self-centered, that they would feel the need to be putting themselves out there on it. You have to remember, this was the pioneering age for a lot of things. The ground floor, if you will, for not only social networks, but also podcasting which was similarly taking off. Podcasting, I loved. Pretentious personalities posting micro updates about their mundane tasks throughout the day, not so much. 

But I had no idea. It never clicked for me. At this point, things were so new and so radical, that even someone as young as me at the time looked at it on paper and scoffed at its stupidity. But once I stopped assuming what it was, and I gave it a chance instead of just being angry at it like an old man yelling at kids on his lawn, the perspective changed. 

I got on board. I got with the times. And when I did, it was all downhill from there. At the time, Mass Effect 2 was the hot new game on the Xbox 360. And me being who I was, I thought the most fitting name I can choose to be online was a mysterious character from this game that I loved. It fit for me because I wanted to be someone who stood out, while also keeping the details of myself secretive. And so, The1llusiveMan was born. 

And he had a nice, long run. It was my main name everywhere I signed up. People knew me and I quickly discovered this social media thing wasn’t so bad. Did the world need to know I was eating a banana? No. But I told them anyway and people liked it. That was the magic of it. 

Having a not-really-great idea of what I wanted to post about, I had a not-really-great idea to do something crazy. Everyone was always posting updates for things they were doing, seeing, experiencing. So I figured hey, why not live tweet something substantial? Like, I don’t know, the birth of our first child.

Yes. Yes I did. 

Here is the live-tweeting of the birth! Scroll all the way down and then read from the bottom up.

And surprisingly enough, the wife didn’t kill me for it. Even more surprising was people actually keeping up with it and being engaged. It was something that I was just doing to do it and thought it was funny people were actually following along. It’s funny how in hindsight, there were two births that happened that day – our son, and my social butterfly from its cocoon.

Instagram 

This was a constant. Funny, I also fought at first. Thinking who was going to care about what pictures I posted? Ha, silly me. It actually turned out to be my network of choice all the way up until recently so I guess that’s saying something. It took me a while, but when I took it seriously that’s when I really started to enjoy it. After a few years, it hit me that Instagram is less of a social network for me and more of a digital photo album. At first I was all about wanting to get likes, sure. But towards the end of my patience with keeping up with things, Instagram is what stayed. Because I knew when I go to look back at things I’ve posted, I would go there and could literally spend hours going through old posts and smiling. 

My only issue with it was my inability to stay satisfied with myself. If you know me, you’d know that over the years, I developed sort of a split personality on these networks. Finding the need to leave the The1llusiveMan with the persona of my core self: gaming, hobbies, fun things. And then branching off and creating ManChefDad: the place where I updated about blog, food, and family related things. My desire to organize myself and keep things separated, not only for personal satisfaction, but to have a dedicated social for my blog, is what almost always burned me out on things. But more on that later. 

Facebook

This is going to be a quick and easy one. My wife actually got in at the ground floor here. She was a college student when it went live and was part of the initial launch of that mad show. If you’re not aware, when they first went live, only those who were attending college and had a college email address could sign up and use the service. So just imagine how much more… sane it would be on there if those conditions were still required. You wouldn’t have the toxic hoards or senile boomers clogging up the works. But I digress.

I never used FB. I only ever signed up because the wife wanted to show off that she was actually married to someone in her marital status on her profile. But when I did sign up, let me tell you, she regretted it reeeeeal quick lol. I was constantly making the dumbest updates, and asking the most simplest of questions. Not to be annoying, but to try to wrap my head around everything that was new to me. 

Ok, fine, I might have tried to be annoying.

Even today, I’m not huge on FB. I am in some groups that I ignore accordingly, and like other networks, I have a page associated with my blog that I equally ignore accordingly. I feel like there was a long time in the not-so-distant past where communication between the wife and I was done solely through sharing FB reels and posts through Messenger. So I guess it was good for something? 

Google+ 

Now that was one network I jumped on from day one. This was a thought out network. Their use of circles and how you communicated with people was advanced compared to other places. I always believed that Google+ was the best, and the biggest problem it had was that no one else realized it. I  tried so many times to get everyone off of their Dwitters and give G+ a decent shake. Very few ever did, but it never stuck. And look, it died! I hope you monsters are happy. We could’ve been happy with our Circles but nooooooooo. 

Honestly, I blame Google. They like to create something nice and functional, and then get everyone attached to it, folding it nicely into their daily routines. And just when you’re comfortable and happy they like to send out an email saying how they’re shutting down support in a few weeks because [insert arbitrary and totally ignorable reason here]. After a few, you get used to the hurt. Like an abusive relationship everyone tells you you should get out of but you be like “bUT i LoVe tHeM!” You will be sitting there in your Google+, or your Hangouts, or your Google Photos, or your Google Reader (omg, this one hurts still)… You’ll get your email and just sit there like 

Fun fact, I loved G+ so much, that because it’s what I was using at the time, I chose that platform to be where I live updated the birth of our second child! It was much more organized, I’ll tell you that. But overall it wasn’t as magical of an experience. I think it had a lot to do with the group of people that engaged, and how most of them were new to my social circles since not many wanted to cross over from T. Also, our second son came a lot faster than expected. 

I had just sat down to eat lunch and the doc was like “I think you’ll want to get up right now and get over here.” 

And I was like “…are you sure I can’t finish my sandwich?”

A look from him and my wife told me it’s not sandwich time. And about a minute later, kid  #2 was born! Sadly, as with the Curse of the Second Child, I couldn’t tell you where the documentation is for that. My Dwitter account actually still has all my craziness from the first born. But G+ is gone, and the only way I salvaged that was through screenshots that are somewhere on some hard drive. 

The Others

I think that rounds out my big players. There are many things out there that can be considered social Media/networks when you sit and think about it. But when asked for your social accounts, they’re not really ones you typically share. I mean, I do. But that probably shows where I’m at with things. 

Goodreads

I think this is a big one. I’m still very active on it, as are many other book worms and dragons. My presence there is pretty prominent if you look around here. And as I mentioned in my blog refresh post, it’s the only network I choose to still show regular updates to. On my profile it says I’ve been active on since 2012!! That’s a long ass time, if you ask me. Good on them for still being around and being relevant. For a “not-really-a-social-network” social network, they’re doing pretty good. Everyone always says find a niche! They ain’t kidding, I guess. 

Pinterest

This is another one that I would not really classify as a social network. But at the same time, it is so much one. Pinterest has also been around a long time, hiding in the shadows and just thriving on its own. How many times you ask someone “hey, what socials are you on?” And the first thing they say is Pinterest? Exactly! Yet, here they are, still rockin’ it! As a blogger, Pinterest is my network of choice.

It is the number one place to promote for many reasons, but the most in particular is that if someone sees your Pin and wants to engage with it, clicking on it will send them directly to your blog. Straight to it. Bee line. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. It’s a blogger’s best friend, honestly. Instagram, FB, anywhere else, you’re giving out the info, you’re spreading your word. But followers there will only ever see that. They’ll read your post and see your picture, give it a like maybe, and move on. They’ll never go to the blog or site, they’ll never get locked in by your ambiance or charisma. Pinterest? Oh this looks cool, click-click-BOOM, they’re in! This is why I am going to be focusing on it when I get going here again. 

Nextdoor

I’m just kidding. I hate this place.

Discord, Slack, etc.

These. These are fantastic. Find your people. Find your community. Then create your little island and just freaking chill. I’ve always talked about our gaming community from back in the day. Discord is where we still communicate and live. It’s legit been the Horcrux keeping the soul of the old days alive in one way or another. And what’s funny to me? Downright freaking hilarious if you think about it… Forums died. No one in this day and age actually checks into forums on a daily basis for communication purposes. If you need to for something technical or to ask a question, yeah, they are still used. But for fun? Hell to the no.

Guess what though…… Discord.. It’s totally modern age forums. That’s essentially what they are in their function and everyone is pleased as peaches to keep up with things in there. Send them a link to a forum and the amount of scoffing with noses straight in the air. Anyway, huge fan. I love my discord despite not being active some times thanks to being busy. But no random jerks jumping in to ruin your day. No assclowns to tell you you’re wrong just because their twisted way of viewing things forbids them from being logical. Just you, and a group of friends, chillin on the couch drinking coffee. 

YouTube

YouTube is totally a social network, though structured differently. I mean, they have actual posts now to make it more conversational, so that’s cool. But still, overall, it’s very different. I have been on YouTube for a long, long time. I was making unboxing videos back before they were a thing. I’ve made multiple accounts on there because, well, because I’m dumb. I would change my primary gmail account for whatever reason. Storage, boredom, whatever. And when I did I would also change my YouTube because you can’t change the account info once it’s locked in. Yup, I’m such a bright crayon. 

So if I would have kept my original one, fuhgettaboudit. I would have been huge! So many old unboxings on there. Lots of games, electronics, and even different flavored bagels?! Yeah, I did that. Some I tried to bring over and migrate to other accounts, but I stopped doing that. Now I just focus on my one, that guess what, I have associated with my blog! It’s almost as if I planned it out. I have a ton of unboxings I need to post too. I used to always be behind the camera, keeping to my 1llusiveMan persona. But I’m actually excited to try and get something going with actual, face-to-face videos. We’ll see how it goes!

Honorable Mentions

Foursquare 

Remember this one?!? It was one of the OG’s where you would check in to actual, real life, physical places. And you can see how many other people checked into it and talk on there about the place. It was the Yelp that Yelp dreams it could be. I was super heavy on this one and loved it before it went south like all good things. Always made it a point to check into wherever we were. I think this is why I loved the 3DS Street Pass feature and Pokémon Go so much. The social aspect tied in with real life locations. I’m such a sucker for it.

GetGlue

OMG this is the one! This was my freaking JAM. Another network that was gone way too soon. This was hot during the initial few seasons of Game of Thrones, if you want to track when it was a thing. It was something that tied in with T.V. and movies. You would check in to whatever it was you were watching. You could hold conversations with whoever else was watching and talk about what was happening in real time. Not only this, but to show off that you were there, you’ll also get stickers!

They were essentially badges for checking in that you could only acquire if you checked in for whatever show it was during the debut time. See, back then, shows and movies that debuted MEANT something. When something came out, it was exciting, it was fun to follow along and participate in the rush of seeing that week’s episode.

That’s right, one episode PER WEEK. None of this throwing the entire series up onto whatever service and letting people with nothing else to do watch the entirety of it in a day, then make you feel like you’re the loser for not watching it all the day it released. You got one episode, then 7 days later, episode number two. This was the height of our civilization, folks. I hope you were there. Anyway you check in to a show and you get your badge.

The best part??? You get enough badges, and you can submit to receive these badges as PHYSICAL STICKERS!! I have them somewhere that I wouldn’t even begin to know where to look. But I have a bunch of Game of Thrones stickers as well as various other shows and stuff I used to love checking into. And it was free! Man, that was the freaking best. 

In Closing

Ok, this turned into something WAY longer than I anticipated. I feel like no one made it all the way down here. If you did… comment below what your favorite network was that no longer exists. I’ll give it a week and then randomly choose someone and send you a random GetGlue sticker! Note: I cannot guarantee you’ll get it any time soon, as I need to find them first and that may prove to be a challenge. But know you’ll be owed one! Hahaha

Seriously though, I was not expecting this to be this long. I honestly started writing this as a post for something totally different, and here we are. 3 hours later and I talked about the history of my time spent on social media. It should make you wonder what in the world was I going to talk about in the first place. Well, don’t worry, that’s up next.

Que Dios te bendiga

Los