I don't want to be on Social Media!

[old man emu]

I had an enquiry from a potential client today asking about my competencies and qualifications to enable me to do a job for the client. A fair question, but what irked me was that in asking around about my ability to do the job, one reply was that these qualifications were not posted on Linkedin. The client suggested that I should update my profile.

 

I opened a Linkedin account some years ago, but found that all the result I got was junk mail from Linkedin, and requests to invite other poor sods to join. For a long time I ignored the site as i was too busy to be sitting down at a computer answering drivel - I need that time to post drivel here.

 

I choose not to be on Linkedin, nor Facebook for that matter. Does that make me some sort of Luddite? Everywhere I go I see people addicted to digital social media - face down, peering at a small screen as they travel about, oblivious to their surroundings.

 

Although I carry a mobile phone for use in emergencies (like when I forget what the missus sent me to the supermarket to buy), it is just an ancient wire less telephone. It is quicker to make a voice call than send a text message with it.

 

Is it so socially incorrect nowadays to divorce oneself from the whole social media scene, and to prefer actual personal interactions?

 

OME

 

 

[gandalph]

Absolutely not!

 

 

[greybeard]

Sounds like something that should be discussed in depth on an internet forum

 

 

 

[pmccarthy]

I leave my iPhone in the car and check for messages when I get in, every couple of days. Best thing about being retired. My wife does the Facebook check ins and is the point of contact for family.

 

 

[Litespeed]

Not a problem OME.

 

It is social media, not "you must do this to be in business media".

 

Tell them you are too busy ensuring the quality and safety of the work performed to be on Linkedin.

 

Make the offer- you can happily spend time on social media as long as the client does not mind been charged a hourly rate for doing only 30 mins work. And that the time spent on safety will instead be spent on linkedin.

 

See if he/she is willing to fund your social media with their wallet and life.

 

You are doing the right thing

 

 

[Downunder]

Yes litespeed, tell them OME you are "onto it".

 

You will soon have facebook, linkedin, google+, and all the rest.

 

The time taken to do this will ofcouse not be free and your hourly rate will increase 50%.

 

If they book you now before it all goes live, they can save a substantial amount!!!

 

 

[SDQDI]

I am grateful I grew up when I did, (ok I have never really grown up but anyway) I was a teenager when msn messenger started so I did use it to talk to friends but it was on a desktop computer that took a few minutes to start so was only for an hour or so of an evening, I didn't have a mobile phone at the time so was the only link with everyone besides the home phone. Once I left school I got a mobile (at dads insistence, as he needed to be able to contact me as I was doing some contract harvesting away from home) and that became my link to my friends. I never really took to sms as I preferred to actually talk to someone.as social media took off I never had a need or desire for it so have never started in any of the Facebook, MySpace, Instagram programs. I've had friends ask me to join but looking at it from the outside IMO the negatives far outweigh the positives and it seems to be misused so much that I am glad I never started in it.

 

It would be interesting to see just how much productive time was wasted on social media. It also seems to me that it is mainly fed by the good old 'look at me, look at me' syndrome in which everyone gets this desperate need to have people 'like' them to make them feel better about themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if social media has had a big effect on mental health. But anyway maybe that's just my biased view to make me feel better for not having it.

 

Yes it is a tad ironic discussing this on an online forum, but IMO this is quite a step down from a Facebook level and is more in my comfort zone. I still wonder sometimes if it is worth it but I do enjoy flying and that is what keeps me here. I am not a member of any other forums.

 

Ps please 'like' this post, my self esteem needs the boost:hug:

 

 

[Litespeed]

I stroked your ego.

 

All good

 

 

[Marty_d]

OME, I refuse to join BookFace or Instagram or Linkedin or Twitheads or all the other crap out there also. So if you're a Luddite, I'll join your club.

 

 

[gandalph]

OME, I refuse to join BookFace or Instagram or Linkedin or Twitheads or all the other crap out there also. So if you're a Luddite, I'll join your club.

Me too. Maybe we could start up a website where like minded luddites could chat? Oh, wait minute..........

 

 

[old man emu]

I think that there is a difference between slavishly attached to Facebook etc and following topics on special interest forums like this.

 

OME

 

 

[fly_tornado]

you're missing Kermit Weeks if you're not on Facebook

 

 

[gandalph]

Yeah I know OME, I was actually poking fun at myself. Y'see I'd always said staunchly that I didn't have anything to do with social media. I'm not on facebook, I have no idea how to sent a tweet and I don't any of the other stuff. Then my digitally literate Son shot me down when he said "hey! you chat on the Rec Flying site, the Yahoo groups Sonex and Jabiru pages so you're heavily into social media" Boy was I traumatised. I'm not getting counselling but it was a close thing.....

 

 

[Litespeed]

I will not join Face Fark just to see Kermit

 

 

[octave]

Yep Facebook is all scary and evil - this is what I use it for:

 

I live in Melbourne and my 25 year old son moved to Wellington NZ 18 months ago, although I do of course miss him, every day he will send me a link to something he knows I am interested in and I will will do the same. I know what my son is up to and I know he is successful and happy. I get to share in his life and he is interested and likes to share in my life also. We also skype regularly. we share jokes that we know will amuse each other because we have the same twisted sense of humour.

 

My 87 year old father who lives interstate is on FB, he is getting old and frail but loves to research and find old shipmates from his Navy days in the late 40s and early 50s. Although he lives interstate I know when all is going well with him, we also skype regularly. Interestingly his mother back in England when she was still alive would never use the telephone being deeply suspicious of it and its effect on society - sad really, other than visits the only contact was the weekly letter.

 

The first 12 years of my working life was spent in the RAAF where I met some great friends but as often happens I lost touch with them, I now, through Facebook have regular contact with the ones I want to have contact with.

 

I have been a musical instrument teacher for the last 25 years. During this time I have taught hundreds of students, I have always cared deeply for my students and it brings me great pleasure when they make contact with me and I see how their lives have turned out. An ex student of mine has been travelling the word and she is quite a gifted photographer, I am keen on photography so obviously I absolutely love seeing her daily upload of pictures (so much better than anything I do but very inspirational)

 

At the moment I am on holiday, staying with my son in NZ, as a keen photographer, every day I upload some photos. Amongst my contacts on FB some people probably don't look at my photos (and that is fine) some may look at them and make the odd comment, others may ask questions about where I have been and others will discuss the finer points of photography with me . In the good old days I can recall my blood running cold whilst visiting a friend who has recently returned from a holiday when they unfolded the screen and brought out multiple carousels of slides. Now if my friends have gone on holiday I can choose to look at there pics on Facebook or not, I can like or not but the choice is mine.

 

Often the accusation is made that FB friendships are shallow, I am the sort of person who will say hello to someone on the the street, when I go to my local shop I am thrilled to hear about the young woman's recent trip home to Turkey, is this shallow? (I don't even know her name).

 

Apart from the social aspect there is of course the business necessity to have a social media presence, most successful businesses understand that it is important to have a social media presence. For many years I worked for a guy who said he didn't need a web presence because he spent huge sums of money on a large yellow pages add (can't remember the last time I used a real phonebook) needless to say he eventually had to catch up with his competitors (the world wont stop innovating just because some are uncomfortable with it)

 

It is interesting that most people who complain about social media don't actually use it and seem to have a skewed idea about how it can work. My elderly father (who is getting close to the end of his life) today posted pictures of himself when he used to perform in amateur musicals, he does seem to be accepting that his days are numbered and he seems to be looking back over his life. I found these pictures to be very moving (and I am not easily moved) as have other people. I guess the FB knockers would say he was an insecure narcissist idiot???????

 

Social media in the way I (and many others) use it adds to my life, if that makes me shallow, narcissistic or stupid then so be it. I Guess I think that social media now is the the same as the telephone that my grandmother in England refused to use.

 

 

[Litespeed]

Gandalf-

 

You son needs to be educated.

 

The forums you mention are special interest groups that communicate via a digital platform.

 

Social media is for socialising and showing the world how big your ego is, what you ate for dinner, that your bum does look big in that etc.

 

And twitter- is for peeps who can not form real sentences and have bird brains. Also for politicians to prove how irrelevant they are.

 

Linked-in seems to be for people to exaggerate their qualifications

 

 

[Downunder]

you're missing Kermit Weeks if you're not on Facebook

I'm not missing Kermit. Kermit is missing me!

 

 

[fly_tornado]

I will not join Face Fark just to see Kermit

just got his P40 back in the air...

 

 

[Litespeed]

Octave,

 

You seem to actually use Face book for a proper purpose and good on you.

 

But I disagree about business and Facebook.

 

My previous employer- a disability charity decided it was ok to cut frontline staff and close group homes to save money. But then employed someone on a exec type wage just to do a facebook page.

 

It was purely smoke and mirrors and not even a competent page.

 

As with everything, sometimes technology is great, other times it is used for slashing jobs and services.

 

 

[octave]

Social media is for socialising and showing the world how big your ego is, what you ate for dinner, that your bum does look big in that etc.

if this is what happened when you used social media (and you must have used it in order to form this opinion) maybe it says more about the people you connected with. You said that forums are different because that are special interest groups, my fB page is also a special interest group, it consist of people I get pleasure from communicating with and presumably people who enjoy communicating with me, is that a crime?

 

 

[Litespeed]

Not a crime at all.

 

Refer to my last post.

 

 

[octave]

Not a crime at all.

Refer to my last post.

Litespeed your last post wasn't in when I made my post.

 

as far as business goes, I guess it depends on the business, as I said preciously I am a musical instrument teacher, I work for myself and also for a music studio. the owner of this studio has a FB page as well as other social media. On this page various student achievements are posted (with the students agreement). Exam results, Teacher profiles (important to prospective customers) Exam deadlines etc. Most of the customers are younger people and this is how they get their information. In a business sense it is a case of evolve or possibly become extinct, this has always been the case in business.

 

 

[bushcaddy105]

I'm with you, OME

 

I've seen what psychological damage can be brought upon a person after one ill-thought-out comment about a work colleague on F-Book.

 

I also got peed off when looking for up-to-date bushfire information on our official South Australian government Country Fire Service website, as we are continually exhorted to do. The young IT gurus employed to run the media output were putting all the new info on F-Book, including the latest fireground maps, and ignoring the official site. I reluctantly joined F-Book to get the info and then found it was impossible to delete the account afterwards, only to "de-activate" it. I still get crap emails from them.

 

As a listener to ABC Local radio they also seem to have some commercial deal to push F-Book. Why are our government agencies so keen to back what I see as another commercial money-making enterprise (obviously a VERY successful one at that).

 

I must be getting old and cranky!

 

 

[fly_tornado]

ok so what about following Jacqui Lambie? The thinking man's Pauline

 

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[fly_tornado]

she's got that common touch hasn't she?

 

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