Social media
Social media blackouts for weddings
A recent article by The West Australian discusses the increasing trend by couples to ask their guests to not use any social media or take photos during their wedding ceremonies.
On one hand, I understand that you should be able to feel comfortable on your wedding day. But on the other hand, if I was told to not take photos and use social media at someone's wedding, I just wouldn't go in the first place.
At one point in the article it is mentioned that "technology was moving faster than good manners.." Bullshit!. I've said it for a while now but we need to stop trying to force out-dated social norms in the technological age.
There's also a mention in the article about people taking photos and posting them on social media before the couple could release their photos from their professional photographer. One future bride laments "It is the couple's day and it really should be up to them to release the pictures."
On a personal level, I feel this bride needs to get her head out of her ass and stop pretending like she's a celebrity.
However, this person should learn that people don't care about what photos are first and they are always going to want to see the professional photos. Wedding photographers, especially good ones, are expensive for a reason. They are able to paint a picture of the moment that any regular person with a camera, like myself, just couldn't do. Being first doesn't matter.
There also the benefits that technology has bought to the big day. No longer are couples forced to hire an expensive photographer in order to capture the celebrations as there are plenty of family/friends willing to take their own photos and share them with you.
The other benefit is that you will have multiple people taking photos, each showing different aspects of the day that just one photographer may not capture.
While my wife and I had a quiet wedding with 25-30 people only, we still have photos from 3-4 different people all with their own views and photographic memories of our wedding.
In the end, I think these couples are extremely misguided. Wanting to control the whole experience is not the point of a wedding. It's not meant to be a perfectly orchestrated production. It's meant to be a celebration; a social celebration for all to take part.
This piece was originally written on Google+
My social media resolutions for 2012
2011 marked a big change for myself in regards to my online presence and social interaction. After years of locking down my Facebook account to friends only and largely ignoring Twitter; the introduction of Google+ and inspired by people like Jeff Jarvis and Tom Anderson I expanded my social experiences. I started this blog, completely opened my Facebook for public viewing, started my Twitter account and engaged with other Perth people in Google+.
After taking a nice break during the Christmas/New Year period, I’ve had a rethink of my ‘everything will be public’ policy and social habits and set myself some goals for this year that I hope to accomplish.
#1 – Scale back the public nature of my Facebook account
Now this isn’t a reversal of my opinion of the benefits of being public online that I wrote about in my first post, however I discovered that being public on Facebook is not beneficial for the way I use it. Basically, I don’t engage on Facebook much. I don’t make many posts, I don’t like pages or comment on brands, I barely comment on my friends posts. Mainly I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends I can’t catch up with often enough.
So while I won’t go back to hiding my Facebook profile from searches and blocking people, my posts will go back to being only accessible to friends.
#2 – Use Google+ for comments on my blog posts
For those of you (2 maybe 3 people) who read my blog, you may have noticed that I have now disabled comments in my posts. This is because a) there weren’t many comments and b) there were generally more comments were in Google+ that were linked to my blog post. So for each new blog post I have, I will add a link to the Google+ post so you can add comments if you wish.
#3 – Engage in Twitter more
I’m having a great time meeting new people and getting involved in great discussions through the Google+ Perth circle, however I feel like there is a great Twitter community that I’m missing out on since I don’t engage in there nearly as much.
A lot of this is due to the 140 character limit on Twitter which I find too restricting, and I also find Twitter not that well designed for conversation with it’s @ reply system compared to the comments system on Facebook and Google+.
I hope to post and engage more in Twitter over the next year to expand my social experience.
#4 – Make a review video and post it to YouTube
This is one of those things I have wanted to do for ages but there has always been one thing stopping me…fear! My friends will tell you that I suffer from a fear of public speaking, which also effects me when I’m talking on video.
However, I find talking about tech and other subjects much more easier than writing them down. A lot of times I’ve had an idea for a blog post but by the time I have the opportunity to write it down, I have trouble getting thoughts from the brain to the screen. I hope I can build my video skills to be able to make at least one video review this year.
So these are my social resolutions for 2012, are you planning anything similar for your social life or are you just taking everything in your stride as it comes?