Blog vs Facebook vs Twitter

I've been mulling over this topic for quite some time. I've seen some discussion of this in various places, particularly on the bulletin board I frequent. There was some talk a while ago that Twitter and Facebook seem to be "luring" people away from the boards, and based on anecdotal evidence, that is hard to argue with. I also recall a comment left somewhere on my blog (I recall by who, but not on which post) teasing me to remember to keep the blog updated in addition to Twitter and Facebook, since she only keeps up with me here. For me, my blog, Facebook, and Twitter (and the boards, to some extent) all provide different outlets for different audiences, and I use them for different reasons and purposes.

My blog, as you may have noticed, is used largely for in depth reporting. For better or for worse, you get much more detail on my blog than you do via any other means (except perhaps speaking with me in person). This blog also gets more photos than anywhere else. I use it largely as a chronicle of what is going on with us, mostly for the big things, but sometimes for the small things (when I have the time, which hasn't been much lately).

Twitter, on the other hand, is for whatever is passing through my head at any given moment. Consequently, my "tweeps" (people who follow me on Twitter) end up hearing a lot more of my ranting! LOL When I get annoyed about something, I will frequently pop off on Twitter about it. Sometimes it is big things, but more often, it is about small, random, and ultimately inconsequential things. Twitter does get more links to things I find interesting, though. That's hard to do when I have to sit down and make a whole blog post, but on Twitter, I can just say "hey, check out this cool link," and be done with it. Twitter does get the occasional photo, but again, they are either just random and mundane, or they are important enough to end up in a blog post a few hours (or days, possibly weeks) later.

Facebook is somewhere in between, though I have not been on it nearly as frequently in the last few months as I had been. I use that mainly to keep up with what is going on in friends' lives who don't have blogs. I try to also keep them up to date on what I'm doing. They are more prone to getting photos of "big things" earlier than the blog does, but the blog gets more photos once I finally get around to posting about whatever the event was.

So there you go, my general uses for the three formats. (The boards, for those wondering where they fit in, are really where I go to hang out and just "chat" with friends.) This is the place to find all the big news, even if it is sometimes days or weeks late. Facebook is the place to get more immediate "headlines" of big news, but they don't get all the details (or all the pictures). Twitter is where to look if you want some sort of inside view of my random daily thoughts, as scary as that may be! A rolling list of my most recent 3 tweets are also posted to the sidebar of my blog (assuming the link is working), so if you don't use Twitter but want to see "the latest" from me, you can always just pop by the blog and check it out.

As I mentioned, there is a good bit of overlap between the groups who "follow me" on each platform. Most of my Twitter followers are friends from the boards, plus a few IRL (in real life) friends. Many of my Facebook friends are IRL friends who neither follow me on Twitter nor read my blog. There are a good number of board folks there as well, but most are people I have met in person. My blog readers tend to be my closest friends and family, those who really want to know the details of what I'm up to (and who must genuinely love me to read some of the very long posts I write! LOL).

Years ago when I started this little blogging adventure, I was mainly using it to keep family and friends informed of what was going on with us, knowing that a baby was likely to be entering the picture in the not too distant future. In fact, I gave birth almost a year to the day after I started blogging. After that, it served a dual purpose: to keep family and friends informed about Luke, and to record Luke's development for my own uses. I've said several times that I was never really able to keep a journal before, but for some reason, I have stuck with blogging for over 6 years now, and I still love it. For a brief moment in high school, I wanted to be a writer. I can't say that I'm a very good one, but I still enjoy it (obviously), and this blog is about my only outlet for it. So thank you to all of you who read it! It really is nice to know I'm not just talking to myself.

Currently feeling: yappy