The online ID is a tricky area for me. I’ve never been particularly interested in displaying personality on the internet, hopefully allowing whatever work I’m doing to speak for itself. It may be a hopeless dream but flying under the radar is what appeals to me. I don’t have social media in my DNA. The two services I have chosen to subscribe to and review adhere to this potentially ludicrous idea.
Tumblr
The appeal of Tumblr seems endless to me. One of the easier blogging services I have encountered. I find that Wordpress is excellent for those very interested and active parties. For the casual and occasional blogger I really like Tumblr. The variety of blogs on the service is impossible to quantify, but one could say that the range from the mood-board photo repost style to truly personal, or impersonal depending on the user. One could liken the Tumblr experience to a highly functional Pinterest, which I have found little use for so far. One of the great features of Tumblr, or I suppose a lot of networks at large, is that there is a much interaction with the community as the user desires. Essentially, one can configure their Tumblr to have little to no direct interaction if that is how they want to operate. Simply posting videos or photos, serving to house one’s work is my plan for the service. The ability to link several blogs of different styles to the one account is excellent. Should one choose to be highly involved and social Tumblr is superb for that as well, through re-blogging, commenting, liking or following. Directing one’s a-level to their Tumblr page serves as an ideal free web-hosting service. The pages are highly customisable and intuitive, with relative ease to those not enamoured with HTML or the like. As is stand I have used Tumblr for several purposes. A personal site housing material I have worked on, a blogging platform for previous RMIT subjects and an outlet for idiotic photo wars with my housemate.
The Tumblr service provides me with a level of interaction I am comfortable with, if people decide they like what they view they can follow and if they don’t, they don’t. I like that ethos.
Twitter
I have had a personal Twitter for a few years, I rarely post anything and use it primarily as a news filter. I have little to no interaction with the Twitter community through it. Due to this I started a new account specifically for this subject to try and be more involved. Find it here. So far I have begun to follow people from this course and a few other key RMIT based accounts. The intention is to try and interact with the Integrated Media community in a somewhat meaningful way, be it tweeting relevant information, seeing what others are talking about or asking questions.
I really like Twitter as a news feed. In this case, one can get a broad view of how people are dealing with the subject. I think that is extremely useful. Discussing assignments over Twitter could prove very beneficial for those discussing and those viewing. The hashtag for the subject is a fantastic tool for grouping the subject’s consciousness en masse. I also find Twitter invaluable as an up to the second news service, if a lecture or lab is cancelled for example.
So far this account is in it’s infancy and as such is rather dull. I’ll aim to change this throughout the semester and report back on progress made.
Agree wholeheartedly about twitter as awesome for a news source. I find that most days I find out about breaking news and big events through Twitter now.
You are totally right Ellie, it is strangely more reliable in a lot of ways.