Saturday, May 9, 2015

Social Media Integration Attempt

No, I'm not joining FB.  Hell no, actually.

I was told recently by someone I respect that I should get on board with Instagram.

Okay.  I have posted my first, uhh, I guess, post.  It's awesome.  Just put in 26inchslicks and see for yourself.

The immediate feedback I got from my new social media partner just after joining, and then again just after posting, is that I am supposed to "follow" Kim Kardashian.

Holy living hell.  What was so bad about blogs.

19 comments:

twoblackdogsthatbeg said...

Proud to be your fist follow!! Welcome to the world of IG!!

Andy D. said...

Hate to break it to you, but FB owns Instagram. In any case, you're braver than I am. It's a Brave New World, after all.

Stine said...

Instagram is my compromise. Unlike Facebook, it doesn't seem to instill me with a deep sense of rage. And besides, Mr. Speare is the Diane Arbus of our time...

Unknown said...

Plenty to "hate" about FB.... plenty to "love" too. Most of my connections I've made w/ folks concerning cycling, trips, plans and the sharing of pic's and stories IS happening on Facebook... like it or not. I just don't have time to visit all of my friends "blogs" all the time... there's just too many so I end up missing allot of info... and am often disappointed that I missed something important to me. Without the connections made in the past on FB and MTBR (the latter of which I spend very little time on lately) there would have been NO Quilomene trips (as we know them) and/or NO NW Fatbike group beach trips! You and I and a long list of "friends" would probably have never met! You happened to hear about the beach trips by chance from Dave and we happened to tell you about the Quilomene stuff because you happened to end up at one of the beach trips. True, by staying away your skipping the "Bad" stuff... but you have missed MANY significant conversations, communications, zillions of pic's... and as it sits now, when something comes up that someone like me knows you'll be interested in knowing about... we have to take the time to contact you seperately by email or phone to make sure your filled in. Yup, lots of BAD stuff happening on Facebook... and Twitter, MTBR, and everywhere else... and I just don't have time to frequent all of them let alone blogs I'm interested in... but a simple "check in" on FB and I'm up to date on what's going on with family, friends, groups and events (in particular, rides/trips!!!) that are very important to me!!! BTW, "blogs" ARE social media too...

Not said...

My Facebook compromise is to use a (distinct) fake name on Facebook.
- Ventura

Pat S said...

Ward, I'm glad that FB works for you, and I mean that.

But you've also just illustrated one of my major aversions to the platform. You're obviously frustrated with my unwillingness to engage, and through you, FB is coercing me, and coercion is something I detest. I would gladly get on the FB site periodically to find out what's going on, but they won't allow that; they force me to be full-on engaged, including managing all the friend bullshit. Coerescion as an art form for those bastards.

I don't necessarily agree that we would never have met without FB. I think the number of people in the PNW that got on board with fatbikes early on was pretty limited and the internet is pretty enabling. I'd have to go back and check, but I'd bet that our initial meetup at OS was facilitated by MTBR and not FB.

You and I spent 22+ hours in my truck last October on a round trip to the OR dunes that was a pretty monumental experience. We had each others' backs during some dicey, miserable weather, and then we shared 4 hours of glory in the dunes. FB was not involved in any way.

Last week, I drove my family down to OS to meet up with you. Intentionally. FB was not involved in any way.

I'm sorry that it's such a PITA for you to email or call me and I think it's a shame that you've allowed FB to mess up what I thought was a pretty good real-life frienship. If I wasn't so reasonable, I'd be offended. But that's what FB does best, IMO, is divide friends and family and force them to commit to their BS, or not.

For me, it's not.

Hope we can share a ride or two in the future, buddy. But if I'm not in the "club", I'll definitely find my own rides.

Peace.

Unknown said...

Wow Pat, was just trying to illustrate a point... and wasn't just referring to Facebook necessarily but social communication via the web in general. There's issues with all of them... one being that we don't hear each others tones.

And actually, though the 1st notions of a NW fatbikes get together happened, and were also posted on MTBR, most of the planning took place on facebook messages... no reason at all for that except a bunch of us happened to be on there. Then it spread out on whatever "social media" form that anyone could think of... Regardless of how "bad".

Wasn't intending. To endanger a friendship by voicing an opinion... Sorry! You voiced yours about something that I and a bunch of your friends use just fine and I reacted to it. I, so far anyway, have not lost any friends via facebook, and have made many new ones... And connected with some from the past that I truly never thought I'd see again. I just haven't had the bad experience you and others have had I guess w/ facebook... There's some crap on there for sure... but I've never felt "forced" to do anything...I just use it as a communication "tool" and try my best to blow off the BS.... Like in everything else cyber wise...

And, my friend, emailing you is not a hassle at all... and I look forward to having something to email you about, or vise/versa. And sometimes that's how it starts... Other times it's a conversation on facebook, , some of which, yes, I wish you were part of. Oh well, who knows how we'll be communicating 10 years from now... All of these "ways" will most likely be a thing of the past... And whatever it is, hopefully we'll find ways use it to make friends, plan adventures,etc... Not the opposite.

Happy trails!

Dave N said...

I figure my Facebook time will be like my Dirtworld.com time and MTBR.com time and eventually I'll lose interest because of trolling or whatever and then move onto something else or just disappear like the unibomber into a 10x10 shack someplace. I've resisted the instagram thing just because social media is turning into somekind of fashion and I could care less really.
Pat I do hope you are still going to continue to blog here. I already have about a billion bookmarks and I'm afraid bookmarking one more will make my PC croak

Yeezus said...

Just a friendly word to stop blowing up Kim's phone with your nasty instagram selfies and shit. Ain't gonna tolerate no following, stalking, friending, or poking.

If you be poking I be stepping.

Pat S said...

Dave, please don't go unibomber on us. No matter what. It's not a good look for you.

Yeezus, hear ya. Loud and clear. Geezus. On another subject, could you guys use a social-network-sophisticated male nanny?

Yeezus said...

Beyonce deserved the nanny job, but Kim hired Taylor Swift and Beck in a job share! I think those two may be the same person, so maybe not a job share exactly.

Kim is all like, "Beyonce and you alone at naptime? Recognizing craft and artistry my ass!"

Which for Kim is saying a lot.

Hit me up again when South is born.

Lost my blogger password too lazy to find it said...

One thing about not being on fb is you'll never know the awkwardness of ignoring a friend request of somebody you don't know and then running into them at bike events; then finally 6 months later thinking I guess should accept their friend request but now it's even more awkward.

wileydog

ps been looking for that Instagram icon

still no password said...

and yes fb is evil

Pat S said...

wileydog, yeah, shame that I will never have that experience. ;-)

Unknown said...

You can find good or evil in just about anything if you look hard enough...

I'm just not as "internet savy" as you guys I guess. My Mom, Dad, Wife, Daughters, Sister, Brother, and a ton of my friends and other family just simply keep in touch, share some pic's & stories, make some plans on there... NOTHING "evil" about that... and if you judge that "evil", than I am offended!

If my family & friends say "we're all moving on to... whatever the next internet social communication media organization is"... being the idiot that I am (I still have to look up stuff like "PITA" on the urban dictionary to make sure I know what it means)... I'll probably follow them.

By the way, your blog posts have been shared of FB many times not only by me but several others... as a result, many folks that follow you came there from FB (demons?). I'll stop doing that if you wish.

Just wish I knew what happened to you guys that made you so completely negative about it... really, I'm not very educated on this internet stuff (took me a while to figure out how to register on g+ just to be able to comment on here... then they make me "prove I'm not a robot"... sounds a little fishy to me). Fill me in and maybe I'll get the heck off there and suggest my friends & family do too.


Pat S said...

Ward, as I said initially, I think it's great if FB works for you. It works for the majority of my friends and family, and they find a lot more value and entertainment than irritation with the experience, because they continue to use it. I have zero problem with that.

As for me, I don't like FB for certain personal reasons and that's my choice. I'm clearly in the minority, and am certainly the odd man out on a lot of communication that happens there, but I choose to live with that. It's really that simple.

I'm sorry that you've chosen to take my comments so personally. They are directed at FB and not the users of FB. Hell, if I had a problem with everyone who uses FB, I'd have alienated most of my family and friends.

If we lived closer, I'd come over to your house and drag you out for a ride and we could put all this krap behind us. ;-) But since we can't ride, let's just simply put this krap behind us.

Take care, buddy, talk to you soon. Thanks again for your hospitality at Ocean Shores last weekend. That was a great ride out to Damon Point!

Ass Half Empty said...


Favorite things about Facebook:

1. The period of human history prior to Facebook's existence.
2. Kindness: Facebook is not constructed from slain kitten parts (with the exception of Mark Zuckerberg).
3. The void left by the Facebook icon after deletion.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I will email you when I get a chance

Take care!