Ask HN: What is the purpose of social media? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is the purpose of social media?

6 pointsdiolpah4 comments

I am a lifelong technologist. I have started or joined a number of reasonably successful projects and companies in my time. I've had some good exits, and I've had a lot of fun. I'm generally very passionate about what I do, and I love seeing the accelerating advancement of technology.

However, I am an absolute noob when it comes to social media. I set up a twitter account roughly three months ago, and I have been tweeting regularly since. After various articles convinced me that starting a blog would be an interesting experiment, I established a tumblr account and wrote my first blog entry, literally today.

That said, I really don't see the point. My experience with twitter has led me to the inevitable conclusion that nobody cares what one has to say on social media platforms -- and I don't understand the value of communicating into a vacuum.

So, I come to you, HN. What benefit is there of participating in social media? What am I missing? Thanks.

The postings of the people I tend to follow on Twitter fall mainly in two categories, funny or interesting links/news. When I tweet I also aim for those categories, but I agree that it sometimes feels like shouting into a cavern meaning that you don't get any reactions from followers at all. The nice thing for me about Twitter is that it is very easy for me to send out a tweet, it is not time consuming like writing a blog would be. I also really enjoy crafting a tweet and getting the wording just right within the length of one tweet.

I don't use Facebook, but to me it sometimes seems like people use it as a substitute for socializing in real life. Since I'm somewhat of an introvert I prefer to keep a few friends that I really like instead of many friends that I don't like as much and Facebook seems to me to be the opposite of that. I may be wrong though and I guess people that like Facebook would disagree with me.

My thoughts on blogs have always been that they should be a creative outlet for your thoughts on one or several topics that you are really passionate about. You shouldn't write a blog to get an audience, but if you are passionate and write well I think you will organically grow an audience over time. A good thing about today's connected world is that any interest that you may have is probably shared by tens-of-thousands of people.

Speaking generally I think that "social media" is a bit of a misnomer at least compared to what I normally think of when I hear the word social (something like "seeking or enjoying the companionship of others").

Perhaps your expectations were more aligned with that definition of "social"?

On the other hand, if you don't enjoy it; don't participate! I'm not sure you will miss out on anything and at least it will be a point of discussion when you meet your friends in real life. :-)

Having your question answered on Hacker News is fairly obvious benefit.

HN mightn't normally be considered social media but it shares many of the characteristics; networking, shared interest, profiles and self promotion.

I think each social media channel can have different negatives and benefits. I've also had the "communicating into a vacuum" feeling about twitter, but I've found some great links on it. Whereas I find Facebook good for keeping in touch with friends and family but not work colleagues.

Nice blog post btw, any luck with the increase in girth?

From your posting, I take it you've been around the block like myself (no disrespect if you're not 'old' old). I think it's a generational thing. People in their teens, 20's and some 30's are not so reluctant to post their lives online (and there was an article circulating HN to back my statement - just cant recall it now). Anyways, I'm an old fart, in the sense that I hate to submit personal data online; online banking still scares me; and I've never adopted/accepted nor am I a fan of FB or Twitter. Dont get me wrong, there are advantages to social media, but like you said (and others here) - it lacks the "social", as in companionship and real-time interaction with others. The startup, Shaker, is a step in the right direction, but I remain weary of posting personal things online. If personal information were kept 'personal' and not reside in a server 'out there', I would be more inclined to participate. Wouldn't you? In such a scenario, all end-users would control their personal info and not have to worry about 3rd parties intruding into my personal info, ID theft, privacy issues and the like. C'est la vie. That's the infrastructure that we've been given. But then there is this 'vacuum' you spoke of...the current platforms are just not set up to foster/simulate a social environment as in the real world...but they will have to do for now.

I use twitter for news, follow scientists & technologists, I see many links there before HN.

I think platforms like FB are for showing off and looking for chicks and stalking people.

SN interest me because they are yet to be explored medium. There are many algorithms that enable you to find out nifty things. See https://github.com/clyfe/cywiky/wiki/Social-Media-Analytics and http://www.hilarymason.com/

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