Social Media ARGH!

Instagram has been showing me reels and images from pages/people that I'm not following. I actually don't mind, which surprises me. Maybe because a lot of it has ::SHOCK:: been things that I'm interested in. Usually, when sites do something like this, it's stuff I couldn't care less about.

So why the ARGH!? Let me explain.

Some of the reels have been sewing related. I'm all in for those since I've got so much to learn. So I'll watch the video a few times and scroll down to the words to see what they're making, what they're doing, why they're doing it. You know. An explanation.

And what do I see? A language that I don't speak.

That's right. Instagram is showing me reels from people who are posting in other languages other than mine. It's okay if I only need the pictures, but when I need more than that? I suppose I could copy and paste into an online translator, but I'm not going to take the time.

So far, I've seen reels for really cool sewing and knitting techniques. I've seen a woman wrapping gifts (this was before Christmas), and while I don't know how it ended up in my feed, I enjoyed watching her do this. There were people folding paper, cutting it, and creating cool snowflakes. And all if it in another language.

Another ARGH! is I'm getting a lot of artists in reels, too. The short video is enough here, but it's amazing to watch them just create beauty out of a blank page and some paint or ink. So why is this an ARGH? Because I'd love to be able to do that, too, and I can't. I used to periodically buy art supplies and try to draw, but it always ended up being discouraging. I never was good enough.

Although maybe this shouldn't fall into this category. I enjoy watching the real artists work and I stand in awe of their talents. I'm just kind of bummed that I got so little drawing ability.

Pinned!

I'm on Pinterest now!  For those of you unfamiliar with it, Pinterest is like a cyber bulletin board where you can pin pictures you find online and share them with others.

I'd heard about Pinterest shortly after they started, but I didn't sign up then. I suspected that I might find it addicting, and as it turns out, I was right. Sharing pictures is fun, but it's also so much fun to see what other people are sharing. It's allowed me to discover things I might not have stumbled across on my own.

One of the reasons why I decided I wanted to join Pinterest was so that I could share the pictures I use while I write my stories. I started out just finding pictures for the hero and heroine, but as time went on (and after I got high speed internet) I started using more and more pictures. I've always wanted to post them somewhere so that readers who were interested could see what I was envisioning as I wrote, but I didn't think I could do it without violating copyright. Pinterest finally allows me to share and it links back to the original site.

The first thing I did was put up a board with all my characters.Then I started adding other things I liked. Right now I'm doing a board for each book so (if you're interested) you can see not just the characters, but their furniture and homes and other settings or clothes or whatever. This is a work in progress and I'm only about halfway.

If you're on Pinterest, feel free to friend me over there, and everyone is welcome to come on over and check out my boards.

Social Media Blitz

I have to make an apology here. Back when social media sites first got hot, I joined all the ones I heard about or received invitations to join. MySpace, Bebo, Shelfari...well, the list goes on and on. I rarely visit most of these sites. Some I no longer visit at all.

This weekend, I discovered that I'd been getting messages on my wall at Shelfari. Some are two and three years old. I never saw them. I did post back to the people Sunday, apologizing and thanking them, but wow, am I embarrassed. The first thing I did was check my settings and notifications were turned off. I probably did it and forgot about it.

My philosophy on these sites that I don't visit anymore has been to leave my page up because I figure why not? Maybe it's not updated, but it still has links to my site and stuff, so people who find me, say at Bebo, can link through if they're interested.

I'm rethinking this theory.

Maybe it would be better to delete my profiles at sites I don't visit any longer. That way I won't run into this situation again where I've inadvertently left someone hanging who took the time to leave me a message.

I honestly haven't been to some of these places in years. Sometime a lot of years. I'm on Facebook and things still get backed up there. And I'm on Twitter, which I love. :-) And you can find me at my blogs, but any other place? Hit or miss. From now on, I will try to drop in at Shelfari and Goodreads and check my page, but I'm thinking I should just delete Bebo and add a message to MySpace that I am no longer active there. This might be the way to go.