Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

Social Media Etiquette

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

It’s a murky world, that social media. New things popping up all the time – between the Facebooking, Tweeting, blogging, Tumblring and such like, we often spend more time communicating online that we do in the so called ‘real world’. As it all develops, we’re starting to notice what one might consider, online faux pas that get us momentarily riled to the point we might send an angry tweet and promptly forget about it 23 seconds later. So if you’re struggling to navigate the murky waters that are social media, here are a few hints and tips to help you get it right.

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Posted in life | 33 Comments »

Ten Best Tweets of the Week

Friday, June 17th, 2011

Take a peek at the tweets that made me giggle the most this week and then follow the authors of these nuggets.

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Posted in life | 3 Comments »

My Top Ten Tweets of the Week

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

In this new feature, I’ll be bringing you my top tweets of the week, so those of you who already follow me on Twitter can reply to them in more than 140 characters in the comments and those of you who don’t use Twitter don’t feel so left out. So, here goes…

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Posted in life | 4 Comments »

The Art of the Twitter Meltdown

Monday, June 6th, 2011

People use Twitter for all sorts of different reasons; to network, promote, try out material, converse, vent. Never before have we had the technology at our fingertips to allow us to share our every passing thought with total strangers. But therein lies the problem: real life rules don’t always apply to online life and the lines get blurred. Why is it that the filter we use in every day life gets all but switched off when we connect to the internet? This is especially true when it comes to the public meltdown, Twitter style.

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Posted in life, relationships | 24 Comments »

Are Your Work Mates Your Real Mates?

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

How intertwined are your work and professional life? Do you go for drinks after work with your office mates? Oh sure, we all want to make out like we love the people we work with and since we spend a great deal of our lives around them, it’s pretty essential for our survival, so we don’t totally lose it and go on an office rampage. But weather you’re genuinely friendly with work pals or just faking the funk to make it through the day, is it wise to buddy up with the competition?

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Posted in relationships | 17 Comments »

Does The Internet Ruin Relationships?

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

In my first relationship when I was 17, I’d just gotten my first mobile phone. Back then, you only used it if you were actually out and couldn’t be reached on your home phone. Texting was complicated and took us all a while to figure out. No one was really using email that much. Basically, the only way to know what was up with your significant other was to actually hang out with them. Fast forward to 2011 and managing your relationship has become a complete clusterfuck as we all attempt to navigate our way through the myriad of technology that now plays a part in our love lives. So, does blogging and social media ruin relationships?

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Posted in relationships | 22 Comments »

Sex, Lies & Social Media

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

When the video of 16 year old OG Niki surfaced on YouTube a few weeks ago of her rapping about her various sexual conquests, it seemed the whole of Twitter sat up and took notice. Her opening line about getting it from behind and having ‘six man and a camera’ (for those not catching on, she’s talking about filming an orgy she had with six men), made a few jaws drop. It got me thinking about teenagers and sex in the digital age. Online life moves so quickly and there’s no handbook for how to appropriately handle relationships in that forum, so what is the answer?

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Posted in relationships | 17 Comments »

Diary of a Social Media Addict

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

I spend so much time at my computer, a friend of mine jokes that when we meet in person, there should be a computer screen between us to make me more comfortable. I blog, tweet, email and Facebook my way through every day. Phone conversations are kept short, if they’re had at all and meeting in person can only happen once I’ve finished blogging, tweeting, emailing and Facebooking. It was only over Christmas that I realised how exhausting my constant online life has become. I’m always connected and while I wouldn’t change my life as a blogstress for anything, I gotta admit, it ain’t always easy. So I decided to unplug. Yup, I would go cold turkey. No social networking for a while.

Truth be told, I was going through a bit of writer’s block. I reached a point where I honestly felt I’d said everything I needed to say. Try as I might, I couldn’t find anything I wanted to talk about. My usual methods of twitter conversations, following links, checking online versions of mags and papers for blog ideas were yielding nothing. Could it…is it possible….did I need to step away from the computer and actually….*gasp*…get a life? Then I might possibly have something to write about? Say it ain’t so!

I am a pretty prolific tweeter, guilty of tweeting whatever mind numbing nonsense comes into my head, so switching that off was pretty hard. Admittedly, I did roam around the house for a few hours just saying things out loud and expecting people to hold up an ‘@’ sign and reply to me. It was all a bit weird.

Right, I’ve unplugged from Twitter – what do I do now? Well, how about read a book? Heck, with everything I’ve had going on, it’s been a while since I did that. I picked up a big hardback and tried to dig in. Reading sentences that are longer than 140 characters is hard. I kept having to fight the urge to check Twitter. I felt I was missing out on whatever conversation might be happening over there. Before I knew it, I was 20 pages into this book with no idea what had happened. Clearly, I tried to do too much too soon. A meaty book with an interesting plot line was too much. There was only one thing for it, I had to go with something easier – ChickLit. This was an awful moment of realisation for me. I’d been sent a tacky ChickLit book a few months ago, so I dug it out and got to reading. It was every bit as terrible as I expected, but at least I could whizz through it.

Waiting at a bus stop, being on a bus, fighting through crowds of sale shoppers, enjoying a quiet hot chocolate in your favourite cafe, wanting to share a hideous fashion faux pas you just saw – all of these things are startlingly different when not shared on a social media platform. I only had myself to share my mundane thoughts with – and I’m a pretty harsh audience, I don’t laugh as much or anything, so the whole thing was unrewarding.

However, I did start to get some ideas and all of a sudden, I could string a few words together and write them down. Offline life ain’t all that bad after all.

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Posted in life | 8 Comments »

Cool Stuff

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Today, I was off work, not feeling too well. Drifting in and out of a nap haze throughout the day and curled up with a hot water bottle feeling sorry for myself, I tweeted ‘Hot water bottle currently saving my life’. Not long after, a pair on Twitter, who go by the name @irkafirka, sent me the illustration above. An actual illustration of my tweet. In the midst of a crappy day, this perked me up no end. So thank you Misters @Irkafirka, random people on the internet I’ve never met. That was a random act of kindness that will never be forgotten. Sending virtual hugs and booty gropes your way.

You can check out more of their tweet illustrations at www.irkafirka.com

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Posted in life | 8 Comments »

Social Media’d Up

Monday, July 26th, 2010

In 2005, just before I moved to Japan, I stumbled across a peculiar thing called MySpace. I was horrified. Why would anyone want to put themselves out there like that, I thought. A girl had put pictures of herself up and people were ripping her to shreds. I don’t want any part of that, I said and quickly navigated away. Fast forward to today, I have this blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Soundcloud…basically, there is no escape from me on the internet. I got sucked in.

What happened is, when I got to Japan, I saw my roommate was using MySpace. She talked me through the benefits and said it might be a good way to meet people. Hmm. I set up a profile and within a couple of weeks, it had basically become like my own personal dating site (hey, we were in Japan – there’s a lot of lonely American military men out there, what can I say?)

When I moved to Canada at the end of ’06, everyone was talking about something called ‘Facebook’. I don’t need that, I’d say, I have MySpace. But after a while, having MySpace was like being the last person at a party. Plus, the only friend requests I was getting on there at that point were from random death metal bands in Ohio. Yup, I had no choice, I had to defect – so, off I went to set up my Facebook account.

At the end of ’07, this blog was born. Last year, though it petrified me, I decided to start making video blogs. Gradually, one little thing at a time, my online life has grown to the point where I’m online all the time.

So why do we do it? Those who don’t ‘get’ it, say it’s just all so narcissistic to put ourselves out there like that. Do I think that what I have to say is any more interesting than anyone else? Of course I do! I wouldn’t waste my time otherwise. In reality, is it any more interesting? Of course not! First and foremost, as someone who spent much of my twenties galavanting around in other countries, it was just a way for me to keep in touch with my friends – if other people wanted to read what I had to say, cool.

People who don’t use any form of social media love to look down their noses at those of us who do. We’re just all sad little losers, living a fantasy life with no real friends. If that’s all they get from their internet experience, they’re doing it wrong. I’m happy to say I’ve met so many wonderful people through blogging and happily count them as friends now. I  use Social Media to grow both my online and personal connections. For me, one is not really separate from the other.

It takes a while to get used to, as my blog grows, the barrage of negative comments that come every now and then, how people can and will judge your whole life off just one blog post, then click through to some other random portal of the internet without giving it a second thought. How people will make all sorts of suggestions about how you should conduct yourself on your blog or Twitter (how about I just stick these middle fingers up, that good enough?) without considering that they should perhaps start their own blog before offering up their armchair ponderings.

There are a million things about Social Media that drive me crazy (really? Another blurry shot of your drunken night out on your Facebook page? Yawn), but I can’t imagine my life without it.

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NOMINATE ME!

Cosmopolitan has launched its Blog Awards and I would be so grateful and honoured if you would take a moment to nominate  Bangs and a Bun in the ‘Lifestyle’ category. It only takes a second and I will love you long time if you do. Click here and make my day. Thank you!

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Posted in life | 18 Comments »