#blogjune Post 6 - Socially awkward - I think not

Miss A has got an Instagram account.  I'm not sure how she got one but she told me to follow her.  I then got her to go into her account settings and change it to private.  I then gave her a talk about how she needs to only let the people she knows follow her.  She's ok with that.  Thank goodness she tells me what social media programs she is on.

She is also on Google plus.  She chats to her "friend" Rachel in the USA.  I've seen Rachel via video when Miss A has been chatting to her, so I know that Rachel is Miss A's age.  I hear what they are talking about as Miss A has to leave her door open on her bedroom when she goes in there to chat to Rachel.  And she also uses Google Plus to chat to her school friends.

Miss A claims she's socially awkward.  Perhaps in "real life" she is, but online is a different matter.  Is the online world making it easier for Miss A to be social?  Not sure.  Is it helping her "real life" socially awkwardness?  Probably not!

There are many times in our household that I look around and we are all on devices.  We do talk to each other about what we are doing on the devices, update each other on the news or show pictures of things that others have shared with us.  I once said we are a device driven family!  Not sure how I feel about that but certainly on weekends like the one we just had where it was very wet, it kept us all occupied and a bit more connected to the outside world - or are we??

#blogjune Post 2

Yep, I'm all for creative titles for each post - not!!  I promise to work on this.

This morning I was reading my friend, Rachel Wray's blog post about social media.  I tend to follow the same trends Rachel does.

I used to be a big user of Twitter but now only venture on there when attending conferences.  I tend to use is as a note taking/sharing device.  Or when I'm doing a challenge like this - #blogjune  Oh I also sometimes go to it when watching The Voice to check out what other viewers are saying about the contestants.  But generally Twitter is not something I check all that often.

Since moving away from family and friends, Facebook is my go to for social media.  It has also become a place I connect with other runners from all over Australia.  I go for it for the latest news reports, weather, and generally what is happening around the place.  I provide updates/snippets of what I've been doing so my family and friends can stay in touch.  I share pictures of places, people, and family.  This would be the social media tool that I use the most.

I've recently started using Instagram a bit.  Mainly because I can do running selfies and upload the image, tag and share very quickly.  It also posts to my Facebook page - 2 birds with 1 stone!

I have tried using Pinterest but find it's probably of more interest to those doing crafty things - I'm not very crafty.  That said, apparently it's good for getting some memes (sorry if I've used the wrong word) for Facebook posts for my library service's page - but I find that I have little time at work to be looking for or thinking about possible posts for our Facebook page.  I actually think that it is worthwhile having one staff member looking after a library's social media to ensure a targeted, consistent approach - not having random posts for the sake of posting.

These social media tools are about the extent that I have explored in the hundreds of tools available.  I must admit that I do use a little bit of the social aspect of Strava but find that it is more of a running recording tool for me than a social tool.

Thanks, Rachel for prompting some thought and reflection regarding my use of social media.  It was interesting to read about your uses.

How do you use social media?

ANZ 23 Mobile Things Week 2 - Take a photo with a mobile device: Instagram / Flickr app / Snapchat

I rarely take photographs with my mobile devices.  I take the odd one with my mobile phone but since it has been coming up with the lack of memory issue, I try to avoid it.  And when I have taken a photo with my phone, I upload it directly to Facebook or Twitter - I don't use Instagram, Flickr or Snapchat.

So I started the week with the plan to play around with Instagram and Flickr on my tablet.  I do like the Instaweather app but have only used it twice this week.  I don't really stop during my day and think, oh I must take a photograph!  I also took a "selfie" using Instagram - and then played around with the settings to see what I could do with the photo.

I haven't tried the Flickr app - wondering why you would need two photo apps on your mobile device but then perhaps one has different features to the other?!?  But I did re-visit my Flickr account on my PC and try to upload some photos I had taken of some library visits I did last week.  I used the good old digital camera for that.  However, Flickr didn't really like me and took ages to upload and then wouldn't let me group the photos into sets.  Sigh!

Perhaps I'll just stick with taking photos with my digital camera and uploading them to Facebook to share!!  But yes, I can hear you now saying, what if you want to take a photo of the "now" and upload it during the "now" to share??  Yes, ok I can see the point of that but until I either fix my phone's memory issue or get a better phone - I can't see myself dealing with the frustration of using my mobile phone to take photos.

And as for using my tablet to take photos - number one, I rarely take the tablet with me unless I'm going to a meeting/conference/seminar (it's not something I just carry in my handbag).  And number two, it's a little on the large size so I feel a bit self-conscious when taking photos with it - sort of like holding a brick in front of your face!!

Unfortunately, I missed the #anz23mthings chat session but lucky someone archived it and I can catch up with it here.

And as for the questions we were asked to think about via the ANZ 23 Mobile Things blog, I suppose I did think about them but my library does not use Twitter, but we do try to take photographs during events and post them on to our Facebook page.  We don't have a permission form but usually when people are asked (verbally) they are quite happy for that to happen.  With children I try to take photos of the back of their heads.  And I think it will be interesting to investigate using one of these tools to house a digital photograph collection for the library.  So I still have a lot more learning to go!