Thursday, February 23, 2012

And Out of the Loop Again

That's me. Always out of the loop. How can some people just know what the Next Big Thing is and jump on it? I never do. I'm usually a year or two behind when it comes to trends. By the time I figured out what a BlackBerry was and bought one, everyone was ditching their BlackBerries for iPhones. I hate my BlackBerry. I plan to throw it off the roof of my house once my contract is up in July and I (finally) get an iPhone. But by then, I'm sure something even better will be out.

I had a MySpace account (about 6 months after it was cool, of course.) But then I got a computer virus from a message sent by one of my "friends." Once I got my computer back, de-virussed, I deleted my account.

I will admit, I had a Facebook account before it got really explosive. But I also have to admit that I signed up for it, and promptly forgot about it. Until it got really explosive. I'm still not on there all that often (I read more than post, and I used to play the games until I got sick of having to bug everyone I know to send me this and send me that. Now I realize just how annoying those stupid requests are, even if you can hide them.) I do have a fan page, but I update this blog more often, you can imagine what that page looks like. I will update it, but I have to have something to update it with.

And is it just me, or does everyone have that one uber-political person, who just posts post after post of political bric-a-brac? You know the person I mean - the make-you-want-to-bang-your-head-on-the-desk political poster. The one that has you yelling at your computer, "ALRIGHT!! I GET IT ALREADY!!!!!!" I've got one of those and it must be exhausting to wear those shoes (almost 20 posts in one hour???? Really? And yes, I counted them. I'm just amazed by it, to be honest.) I'm not super-political and I tend to keep my mostly-liberal views out of public forums simply because I don't want to be that make-you-want-to-bang-your-head-on-the-desk political poster. I post them, but not exclusively, just enough so that you know where I stand on certain topics.

I tweet. Some days more than others. But for every follower I get, two more vanish - which I don't really understand. Now I wasn't too far behind that trend, and I'm not exactly sure how that happened. Must have just been a right place/right time sort of thing. I like tweeting because it forces me to pare down my writing. Say what you gotta say in 140 characters or less. Perfect editing tool right there and no, I do NOT use text speak. That drives me nuts when texting, where I also rarely use it, so I make it a point to use real words whenever possible.

And that brings me to the newest Big Thing. Pinterest. WTF is it? I see posts on Facebook all the time, but I haven't checked it out yet. Looks like something else that will amount to a huge time suck, and yet everyone is posting about it. That and checking in places. Maybe it's me, but I don't like to broadcast when I'm not home. And really, it kind of strikes me as even more narcissistic than ordinary tweeting or Facebooking (which, you have to admit, are already smacking of self-absorption and when did Facebook also become a verb?) that I should think someone actually cares that I just arrived at Applebee's or the Hallmark store or wherever. Who. Cares? Someone explain this phenomenon to me, please? Just like I don't understand why people post truly personal things, I don't get why they feel the need to tell me where they are every. Second. Of. The. Day.

Or am I just out of the loop again?

:D

3 comments:

Maria Zannini said...

I'm told it is a very big time suck, so I'm not even going to bother.

Basically, you collect pictures and pin them on your 'board'.

Saku said...

LOL - I've heard of Pinwhatever too, but keeping up with Facebook and my blog writing and reading others is plenty for me.

But you are miles ahead of me, my cell phone is a Samsung, I've never tweeted and MySpace passed me by entirely.

I do, however, know how to set my coffee pot to start before I get up in the morning!

Kim said...

Eileen, one of the best phones I ever owned was a Samsung. I was heartbroken when the charger broke and I couldn't replace it because they didn't make it any more. :(

Maria - good. I'm not missing much then. :) Sometimes being out of the loop isn't so bad.