Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ mostly. I have a Diaspora account but I think I’ve logged in to that like twice.
Why would I lower myself to the level of the masses by using Facebook.
LinkedIn I use as a self-updating rolodex. I find it handy to know when former colleagues, college pals, etc., change jobs and what they’re doing. If I think “didn’t so-and-so” work for the state department?" I just just look and see instead of tracking them down, bothering them, and waiting for an answer. I don’t use the “social networking” features except to send an occasional message.
Facebook is just for keeping track of friends, staying updated on what their babies are currently doing, pictures of their cats/dogs/recently published novel, and whatever they’re cooking for dinner. I don’t use it for any employment related purpose, and I don’t facebook with family, ever.
There’s a lot of social networking options I don’t use, but twitter is the only one that makes me feel old and confused (and I’m under 40). Every time I try to wrap my brain around it, my brain resists strenuously.
I use Facebook, Livejournal, and Dreamwidth. I have a LinkedIn account that I don’t look at.
I’m not social. I don’t go to bars and stuff. A lot of my friends live hours away. So Facebook is an easy way to see what they’re doing (once I blocked all the game updates).
I use Facebook a lot - I’m at the age where all my friends are starting to settle down with careers and we’re scattered over different cities, so it’s a good way to communicate as a group. Plus they’re cheapasses who only have cell phones but no long distance plans. Long distance plans are becoming obsolete with a lot of younger people.
I also voted LinkedIn, but I only use it because my coworkers try to add me.
As someone who lives an ocean away from the majority of his family and friends, I absolutely love facebook, and I struggle to understand why this would seem bizarre to anyone, let alone pathetic. It’s a low-cost, low-threshold way to keep in touch and in some cases reconnect with friends. Trans-atlantic phonecalls are expensive, skype and email only solve that to a limited degree, and besides calling or emailing people can take more energy than I’m willing or able to commit. In addition, it works reasonably well for planning events and getting friends together, which is a function I find useful. FB has not replaced any conversations in my life, but rather has contributed to the extent that I’m in touch with both close friends and family, as well as more casual acquaintances.
I think a lot of people who don’t understand Facebook have most of their friends in the same city, probably see them once a week for beer and wings night and keep up with family by calling once a month. The beauty of Facebook, for me, is for the people you don’t see every week.
I voted other, since while I have a Facebook page, I only put it up so I’d have something “out there”; it only has some personal details and not much else. I also have accounts on various sites, some which might be considered social networks, but mainly just so I can post a comment if I want to (although I only bother to sign up if it is something I regularly read).
Who cares if people think it’s bizarre or pathetic? It works for you. I’m really glad it does - no sarcasm. people just like to judge, that’s their job. Enjoy it - while I was on it, I used it for the same thing, to talk to people in India.
Of the items listed, I have only a LinkedIn account. Not sure what to do with it, but I am* linked *to a hundred or so other “professionals.”
Facebook is perfect for keeping up with people whom you like enough to want to know how they are doing, but not enough to actually want to interact with them.
I use Twitter primarily as a feed to follow local news. It lets me keep up with whats going on and I can find interesting articles without having to hunt for them.
LinkedIn only, but I’ve had accounts on Facebook and Myspace in the past. I don’t really consider LinkedIn to be a social networking site though–its function for me is to see who has changed jobs and stuff like that. There is really nothing “social” about it.
Internet fora are social media, so literally everyone here on the SDMB is on social media.
That said, I manage my theatre company’s marketing, which is primarily social media. So we have
[ul]
[li]a blog[/li][li]a Facebook fan page[/li][li]Twitter[/li][li]a Google+ page[/li][li]a YouTube account[/li][li]and currently, (shameless plug) an indiegogo campaign[/li][/ul]
We also do outreach on The Steampunk Empire, though the other company members are largely responsible for that. And we incorporate QR codes in our print materials to bridge the gap between offline and online.
I do less personal networking on social media, but I keep it up for professional networking purposes. Most of the Chicago performing arts community are on Facebook. I have LinkedIn for marketing/day job jobhunting/networking, which is better than nothing (I’ve gotten some leads, but nothing that’s panned out) but not as effective as it pretends to be. Twitter is where all the social media marketing folks are, same with G+. Flikr is where the photographers are and also serves as a portfolio. About the only thing I do that’s almost strictly for entertainment value is the Dope.
I may get involved in Pinterest if they ever make their intellectual property policies play nice.
I’m actually signed up on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Oh, and some music/online radio site too. I check Facebook about once a week but really only post there when I’ve been drinking (which these days is once or twice a year). I haven’t looked at Twitter in over a year, I can’t even remember the name of the music site, and while I did sign up for Google+ and LinkedIn, I’ve never been back since then. So I picked “other.”
On the other hand, I spend a lot of time on here and on Goodreads.
I’m on Facebook and Google +. If all my friends would move to the latter, I’d drop the former. I have a Twitter account but it’s largely dormant now (2006/2007 were my big Twitter years). I also have Instagram now but for me it’s a camera app that just happens to have a social network attached, not a social network that lets you take photos.
Last night I chatted on Facebook for a couple of hours to a guy in the US who is a very, very distant cousin and we discovered that his job has had him in contact with my old workplace, we got a lead on tracking down his old schoolfriend who moved to Australia in the 60s and we shared Google Maps data to show off our neighbourhoods to each other. That was really, really cool. Thanks, social networking!
I don’t have a Facebook and I refuse to ever create one because I don’t like the company’s business practices, its leadership, or its information-gathering.
I have a Twitter that I post to very rarely when I have some random thought I feel like sharing with nobody in particular (“nobody in particular” being a good description of my 17 followers.)
How *dare *people interact with others in a text-based format that allows them to type out messages at their leisure, in between reading the messages of others!? This is an outraeg!
I do assloads of social networking, on Facebook, G+, and Twitter. It amuses me to do so.
Good for you.
I have a facebook account with absolutely no information about me, for two reasons:
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It enables me to search for people if I want to (and I occasionally do)
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My sister can post her family photos on it, without emailing me files of them, and I can ignore them without being chided for never replying to the posts.