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All atwitter about ‘Social Media’

By Staff | Jun 12, 2016

It’s called ‘Social Media.’

You know, it’s things such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn and a host of others.

Well, you know about them if you use them, and since about a billion or two people around the globe are Facebook members, odds are that you not only know about Social Media, but you use it.

Many folks use it a lot.

And, while in my humble opinion, some people use it way, way too much, I do acknowledge that it does have some positives to it. But the positives are sometimes few and far between.

I know some people who seem to be addicted to Facebook.

You know, they don’t just check it once in a while, like once a day. Or even twice or three times a day.

They check it all day long.

They can be at a social or sporting event with their friends, and yet out comes the smart phone many times during the evening to see if there are any new Facebook updates. Or they take photos of the group they are with, or selfies, or even, dare I say it, a picture of their meal and post it on their Facebook page.

Some people post just way, way too much of their daily lives on Facebook. I am not sure if I really need to know that much information about anyone.

Sometimes I am astounded at what people post. Downright incriminating photos of themselves, at bars or parties and doing stupid things.

I wonder if they know that an awful lot of business owners snoop on Facebook to get a look at applicants for open jobs, or even current employees.

And are sometimes appalled at what they see.

When I look at Facebook, it seems as though a person has to wade through a lot of junk in order to find something they really wish to look at.

People post a lot of odd stuff. You know, like photos of the meal they are going to enjoy. Or repost some slogan or tear-jerking story. Or worse yet, Facebook itself posts all kinds of things on my page, trying to get me to go to some sponsor’s web page to see something like the top ten list of celebrities who have had the most plastic surgery.

But for all its faults, there are some things about it that are worthwhile.

It connects a lot of people together, in ways that were not easily done in the old days. We can stay up to date with old friends and relatives who live far, far away, and whom we don’t get a chance to visit with very often. It is interesting to see events of their lives on Facebook.

I think of it as sort of a continuous family Christmas letter. You know, that annual wrap up of the year we all send out to let friends and family know what happened to us during the past 12 months.

With Facebook, they already know. No need for that end of the year letter.

Now that I am done whining about Social Media, I have to admit that we have our own Facebook and Twitter pages here at the Faribault County Register.

Many of you already know that, because hundreds and hundreds of you have already ‘friended’ us on Facebook. I like to think that we are not posting any ‘junk’ on our Facebook page, but rather items of interest to people in Blue Earth and all of Faribault County.

Sometimes we have posted an item or a photo or a video that has been seen by well over 3,000 people.

That is fairly incredible to think about.

And now, our plan is to post even more items, trying for daily updates that will be of interest to our readers. We are doing a few more updates to our website as well, keeping it in a more timely manner.

Same goes for our Twitter page.

Oh, yes, we have had a Twitter account for at least the past six years. We used it quite a bit at first, but eventually it fell by the wayside in our daily routine of trying to get the weekly newspaper to press.

But, now we are going to be doing a whole lot more with Twitter, sending out tweets that, again, are of interest to the residents of Blue Earth and the rest of Faribault County.

We invite you to try us out.

Our website is still at www.faribaultcountyregister.com. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/Faribault-County-Register and on Twitter at twitter.com/FCRegister.

Yep, it’s called Social Media. And for us the keyword is media. We want to keep you informed and reading us whether it is print or online.

And, hopefully, it is both.

Thanks for reading us.