Practical Social Media?

As my fall continues to be hectic beyond belief, I am discovering the practical value of social media. We are transferring data from our present website to our new website with Sidearm and I am finding the process is moving a lot slower than I would like.

Every time I encounter something new, I tend to slow down. Why can't the admin panel on my new website operate like my old one? No real chance of that, I guess. So, out comes the manual--the thing is the size of a dictionary. So, I slog through. Slogging is not my strong point. I operate at a much faster pace than slogging normally, so this pace is killing me.

Add to that a trip to Wisconsin to help my elderly parents pack up and move to Montana. Yikes. Why do these things never happen at a good time? Opening home volleyball, annual cross country invitational, website re-do, golf, cross country media guides, travel across the U.S. to move my parents--help!

It is at this time, I start to understand the practical side of social media. Even though I am not posting any news of sorts, I can use the same "instant" media to text my husband and my co-workers about things at work, check my twitter for scores, follow the location of my daughter on the road traveling to house sit while I am gone, surf the internet for moving and estate auction companies from my phone while riding in the car with my dad to run errands, and check the highlights of the weekend's Big Sky Conference doings on YouTube.

I have come to realize how much I rely on social media, not only for work, but also for my personal life. The same media that keeps our fans current on what is going on keeps me in touch with everything I need to keep my life current as well.

Back in the Saddle Again...

Wow-what a whirlwind. Cross-country trip to Boston to move our youngest--quite a ride. We happened to catch tropical storm Danny and Ted Kennedy's death. We took pictures on the drive all the way across the country and posted to Facebook from our phones. It made me think how much technology forms our experiences.

Daughter and I went downtown Boston on the day of the Kennedy motorcade to see the sites and weren't really thinking much of the motorcade, but once we got in the City Hall neighborhood, it was hard not to get caught in the event. So, we had lunch at the Union Oyster House and then decided to hang around. Not knowing where and when the motorcade was coming, I resorted to my phone--not making calls--but getting on the internet. On my Blackberry, I was able to search for the motorcade route, find out if they were on time and what their ETA was for City Hall. It was amazing. Then, when the motorcade came by, I was able to take a video with my phone and immediately upload it to Facebook. The speed of news is amazing.

The rush involved with being able to have and make news quickly is addicting. No wonder Twitter, Facebook and You Tube are so popular--but addicting. I noticed my youngest daughter has a hard time putting away here phone during a meal. That's something I get as far away from me as I can when I am eating. As soon as that phone beeps, dings, rings, buzzes, we make a run for it. Have we created a monster? Setting aside technology to eat, visit, sleep, just plain relax can be tough, but it's necessary. I found the pace we maintained with our phones texting, taking pictures and going on the internet was breakneck, and enough to give me a headache of sorts.

News is becoming that way. We fear we will miss something, so we must stay connected. I rarely make it through an evening at home anymore without going online and check my RSS page and the million feeds I have on there. Time to take a breath...