The blog of the mobile generation

With the common use of smart phones today the internet has moved in part from people's desks to their pockets. No longer do we need to go home and start up our desktop computer in order to go online.

And with that so have some blogs moved along. Smart phones are great for reading and commenting blogs. However writing an actual blog post on your smart phone takes time.

So the blogs got shorter. There was a micro-blog service released before smart phones became common. We all know it, it's called Twitter. Today Twitter and smart phones are a perfect match. You may not produce lengthy, intelligent and well thought out blog posts like we did when we blogged a decade ago. Time changes and Twitter is the blog of the mobile generation.

Twitter & Instagram

I wish I had more time and inspiration to blog but I don't.  So for those interested in my life look to the right of this blog  post. There's a Twitter feed and a link to my Instagram page. It's only short comments and a few snapshots of my life and my thoughts. Something to read in between those blog posts that do get written sometimes.

My social networking

It's only recently that Instagram became available to us Windows phone users and since then I have experimented a bit with different platforms for different social networks.

Blogger: Well it works best on a PC, preferably laptop however you put it. Every smartphone has dictionaries that fill out words after just writing a few letter sin the words. Nokia Lumia has also a very exact keyboard and you can easily switch between dictionary languages. But still it's painstakingly slow to blog on your smartphone.

Facebook: It's the jack of all trades, master of none. The internet version of a food processor in your kitchen. Can be used on everything and everywhere but it isn't exactly interesting and innovating any more. One of the really good things about Facebook is that you can tie everything too your Facebook account. Like Twitter or Instagram and every time you tweet it turns up on your Facebook timeline. I disabled tweets on FB by the way. I will explain why later. Strangely enough you can't put your blog on your Facebook page. You could do that in the beginning but Facebook decided to keep their own "blog platform" called Notes which is the lamest attempt to a blog platform I've ever seen and nobody uses it.

Instagram: It's the new cool place on the internet were all the cool people hang out. It was recently bought by Facebook. Whenever you upload a picture there you can also upload it to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, VKontakte, Tumblr and Foursquare. It's very much tied to you smartphone since there's really not much you can do on it's website except like and write comments  to other Instagramers you are following. But once you get that picture up on Facebook you have all the things you can do with picture on Facebook.

Twitter: I've had a Twitter account for years but I never got it to work with my old phone. The website version is really good. All the more complicated settings you must adjust within the website version. But for the actual tweets, it's on a smartphone where it shines. I now use it as a independent social network and I have a Twitter widget on my Blogger blogs. In case I want to update my blog readers (I'm fully aware there aren't that many of you out there) on something and I do not have the option to write a full length blog post. As in I'm not near a PC. I sometimes share my Instagrams trough Twitter too. The reason why my tweets are no longer on my Facebbok timeline is that my Facebook friends which is basically everyone I know, would get flooded with for them uninteresting and annoying tweets. They make sense as independent tweets and on my blog but it's not for Facebook.

So this is how I do my social networking.

Social networking

I like Facebook. It has brought people I would not otherwise have any contact with  into my online social network. And it's great for getting updated on what you friends and relatives are doing. And planning social events with other people  without it is virtually impossible. I would even say that is has become as important as your phone or TV. You can live without them but it will make life very difficult.

BUT once you have gotten everybody on board it has sort of turned into this little village. And little villages are full of gossip, showing off, drama, people spying on each other, small close knit friends groups that shun outsiders and people with a different opinion or lifestyle than theirs and so on. And frankly it's crippling creativity.

So I've been looking at alternatives. And the result is more blogging (right here), more tweeting and a bit of instagramming. Yes Facebook does have everything but somewhere along the road it turned into a utility, just like your washing machine. You need it but the entertainment factor has plummeted.

Twitter and Instagram are fairly simple and yes I know the later is owned by Facebook. But in all their simplicity they are fun. Last night I took a picture in the dark of the backyard ice rink I've built the last few weeks and put it up on Instagram and you know what, it felt like fun. I haven't had that feeling for Facebook in years. And you can automatically share your tweets and Instagram photos to Facebook.

And when it comes to creativity, I had a great blog. I used to love updating it every day. And I had always something to write. That is creativity and I guess that is what I'm trying to get back to...