Blogs and social media have infiltrated our lives. For many of us, it’s our main method of communication with and keeping track of friends, for others it’s purely professional. And for yet others, blogging and social media is nothing less than a religious experience. On the spectrum of the social media faithful, where do you fall?
Born Again: You don’t have a phone because you’re always available online, and you prefer all interactions to take place in cyberspace anyway. You have at least 2 blogs and a Twitter account and regularly post to all of them, as well as frequently interact with other people’s blogs and tweets. You are active on Flikr and YouTube, and you participate hourly in discussions on Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning and MySpace. You think of your online persona as “the real you”. It’s likely you met your significant other in a chat room, and your friendships are not limited by mere geography.
Fundamentalist: Blogging isn’t just fun and games—you take your online interactions very seriously. You believe that anything worth doing is worth doing well. You limit your social media to what you feel is most effective; and you post to your blog, Twitter, or other accounts with military regularity. Your posts are journalistic, informative, well written, well researched and immanently useful. You feel that blogging and social media are one of the last remaining pure sources of public communication, to be protected at all costs for the benefit of the reader from the taint of commercial exploitation.
Reform: You believe in the infinite potential of blogging and social media. You feel blogging is more of an art than a science, with general guidelines as opposed to hard and fast rules. You resist any attempts to define the blogosphere, preferring to let it evolve on its own and change with the needs and preferences of the users. There are things you like about the blogosphere and some things you don’t, but you have faith in the power of the people. You like to include a variety of information in your posts, ranging from personal confessions to informative articles and links. You may post 5 times in a day or go months between posts; but the important thing is that you’re out there contributing in your way.
Neo-Pagan: You see social media as a return to the roots of community and communication. In a world that places far too much importance on who you know and how you look, blogging is the great leveler; giving individuals a chance to make their voices heard and be judged on the merit of their ideas once more. You enjoy experimenting with new media and services—finding interesting ways to use photos, music, video, and anything else you can find or create to express yourself in your posts and comments. You believe that no idea is too far out there, so long as it comes from a place of originality.
Universalist: Can’t we all just get along? You believe that there is value in all of the above: the passion of the Born Again, the discipline of the Fundamentalist, the open-mindedness of the Reformer and the creativity of the Neo-Pagan—why can’t we learn a little something from all of them? You participate periodically on social media sites, but for the most part you love to explore what’s out there. You subscribe to a wide variety of blogs and share with excitement the treasures you find on them.
CYA Blogger: You’re not sure there’s really anything to this whole social media thing, but you don’t want to be left behind; so you have a blog and a Twitter account, just in case. You post semi-regularly—mostly links to articles and other blog posts—and sometimes include brief commentary. You subscribe to a few blogs here and there, but mostly skim through the posts halfheartedly; after all, it’s not like any of these things are reliable…
And then of course there’s the…
Social Media Atheist: Social media, in your mind, is a bunch of hogwash. This “blogosphere” is nothing but a bunch of navel-gazing exhibitionists (without the talent to get published in the “real world”) whose insecurities compel them to share their every sneeze and speculation as if it’s gospel. Come to think of it, the chances that you will ever read this are slim to none. After all, this blogging thing is nothing but a passing phase, and the sooner it passes the better!
Just as we all go through varying phases of religious faith and questioning throughout our lives, many bloggers and social media enthusiasts will find that they move from one “church” to another as their experience in the blogosphere evolves. So tell me… Where on the spectrum do you fall?
