Thursday, December 11, 2008

My network has networks

Is it just me or has it gotten really hard to manage an online presence? I know we are all busy with holiday stuff and kids and paying the bills and all that good stuff. It all takes time. And then we try to squeeze in time to read a few blogs, comment on a few, and update our own.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg! This blog is just one blog for me. I also have two that are part of my job. In addition, I help maintain numerous parts of a large website for our school. But even those big pages are just the beginning.

Let's talk blogs. How many do you read? My Google Reader tells me I'm subscribed to 162! Some are for fun. Some are for work. But it takes time to read them all. Google tells me I've read 1,193 items in the past 30 days. There were way more that I didn't get time to read. The problem is...I wanted to! I wanted to read them all. But there just wasn't time.

Then there is e-mail. At the moment I've got eight (yep...EIGHT) e-mail accounts. Many I don't have to check cause they are just associated with work things and all the e-mail gets routed to one inbox. But I do check four accounts several times a day and try to respond to all the mail I receive.

And Twitter. Do you tweet? Did you have to download and try Twitterific and Spaz and a variety of other desktop applications so you could easily read the stream of tweets?

Facebook? Yep...got a page...visit it about once a month. MySpace. Got a page...never go there.

And don't even get me started on things like Ning and delicious and bloglines and all the other social networking possibilities!

I guess what I'm saying is...how do you manage it all?? Do you even try? Or did you narrow things down to a simple e-mail and blog?

I want to be in touch. I love being in touch. I love the social networking phenomenon. But damn, it sometimes seems like a lot of work to have fun!

19 comments:

furiousBall said...

i'm with you. i never check my myspace account anymore. i do blog regularly. i did find ping.fm which updates all your statii (statusesusium?) in one shot

VioletSky said...

That is way too complicated.

I gave up housework to blog, have nothing to tweet about and never ever poke anyone on Facebook.

Charlotta-love said...

I blog. Reader makes that easier. I email. I have a facebook that I visit weekly.

I don't tweet. I don't twitter. I don't myspace.

I don't know how to manage it all. One email or blog at a time I suppose.

Anonymous said...

Definitely with you on this one. I wasn't on Twitter, but then I was informed that Twitter is doing Autism Twitter Day on Dec. 16, so I started a Twitter account. My understanding is that you're supposed to "tweet" a few times a day? Yikes! I'm still trying to rotate my blog comments!

Patty said...

Facebook is boring. Myspace is even more boring. I go to them daily read the updates, delete any junk and move on. I have three yahoo accounts and one "real" email account. The "real" account I check two to three times a day..I delete the junk. I check yahoo 1 to 2 times a week..I delete the junk that the spam filer misses. I move on..
I don't twitter or twatter or what ever you called it (leaving a note for myself to put that into google to find out what it is and if I am missing something important.
This brings me to blogging.
I use bloglines to read and I am current subscribed to 102 feeds including yours. I go up and down a few but usually keep around 100.
I check it as the prompt comes in to tell me that there is an update.
In order to stay sane I eliminate and add new blog based on how often the ones I have listed update. If they update at lest once a week/to two weeks I keep them on, if they get stale or don't publish a new post I will eliminate them. If for some reason I use to read someone and they come back by my blog and say hello again. I will re add them. I probably leave comments on about half the blogs I read about half the time...
Whew..now tired and I am ready for a nap just talking about it all lol.

Star said...

Sometimes it does seem like that which has mademy life easier has complicated it. I do what I can. I have not signed onto any social nteworking sites, even Twitter, because I don't have rhe time.

Kati said...

*grin* Hey Em!!! Or, should I say "metal mouth"? eh, that's ok.... i had 2 braces as a kid. (Literally, 2 braces, front, top, middle teeth, to close the gap.) And about 8 teeth pulled. (Ok, 4 of them WERE baby-teeth that weren't coming out on their own.) My dentist told me a couple of years ago she'd love to pull 2 more from my bottom jaw and put that jaw in braces and I told her (and I quote) "no way in hell! It doesn't bother me now, I'll continue to get nagged to floss better, and keep my teeth just as crooked and cramped as they are." Hope the pain decreases quickly once the other tooth is "excised". (Yeah, that DOES sound better, but the thought still makes me cringe.)

As for the blogging. *grin* Yep. I've got probably 60 in my blog-reading list, including my own 4 (my blogspot blog, Myspace, Facebook, AND Covenspace). Then there's my Mom and middle sis, then all my friends, then folks I WANT to "meet" but don't have time to comment at. And that's just my FRIEND'S list. That's not even the list of homesteading/eco/peak-oil blogs I read, or the pagan blogs, or the crafty blogs. *sigh* Too many blogs to read, and not enough time in the year to do so.

Hope the coming years is peaceful for ya and you find time to enjoy some extraordinary moments to remember later.

Lucy Filet said...

I do twitter, but I don't facebook. So basically I twitter and I blog. But I'm really bad at twitter (I update maybe once every three days). So basically I blog and email. But I kind of suck at email.

So I guess all I do is blog. Yes, it's all about me.

Jazz said...

I think I have a myspace, I suppose I do since last week I got an email from some stranger asking to be my friend. But I have no idea what my login or password or whatever is.

I don't twitter, I don't facebook.

I have my blog, my work email, and two gmails - one connected to the blog and the other for general use - but it gets routed through to the blog email.

And there's the blogs I read. I have the crackblogs I read every day and then others that I check periodically.

That's it.

Em said...

Furious..Pingfm...love it!

Tanya...yep, you gotta tweet more often than you blog. Fun? Or a chore?? LOL

Kati and Patty - LOL..you guys are funny. Glad to know it isn't just me!

Kylie...if not about you, then who? :)

Jazz...the whole idea of "crackblogs" made me laugh out loud. And since I'm reading comments at work, that isn't a good thing! LOL

Anonymous said...

I know how you feel! I never have time for anything it seems & now they've added 5 hours of mandatory overtime per week on to my job schedule.
I don't do twitter or facebook & look at my myspace only when my email tells me something new is there.
I understand how you feel in your comment on my blog- I could use a lot more time before Christmas drops down on my doorstep again.

Redroach said...

1. Only one seriously updated blog for the, rest are fluff

2. Only one website to update, it is work

3. I tweet when I can

4. All email goes through outlook. No matter how many accounts, they all wind up in their special folder.

I skipped email for two days and had to download 17 megs of stuff.

TV

Debbie said...

I just checked and I have 253 blogs in my subscription. That is too many. However, now I want to add you too! What's a girl to do. And yes it is getting harder. The holidays make it tougher.

Bijoux said...

Thanks for stopping by my place! I don't twitter - I don't own a Blackberry and to keep costs down, I only use my cell phone for calls. I'd think you have to be fairly mobile to tweet.

I have a facebook page, but not many friends. Most people my age (45) don't seem to do it.

I've tried to keep my blog subscriptions to a small clique of people. But there are so many good ones out there, it's hard to not expand. I'll be adding yours!

molly_g said...

I'm with you on this. I don't actively use any social networking to get my blog out there, though. I am on facebook, myspace, twitter, have 5 email addresses, belong to 4 yahoo groups and a couple of listservs. It's insane.

I don't put my blog on facebook, myspace or twitter because I'm not necessarily comfortable having friends from childhood that I don't really know knowing that I've got a kiddo in special ed, which is the basis for my blog. I prefer my blog being anonymous, you know?

Jocelyn said...

This is the perfect week for me to read this post, as I haven't read a blog in days. I'm staring down 50 research papers and thinking I just want to sleep.

But in a few days here, I'll get back to thinking about putting up a new post and visiting a few more blogs. And maybe just turning off the computer sometimes.

Anonymous said...

I check Facebook daily, but haven't found the time to blog much in the past few months (even though I used to do it almost daily). It's crazy how we lose track of things.

Melody said...

I 'Facebook' everyday and then I feel guilty that I have negleted my blog! *heehee*

I quite like VioletSky's comment re: I gave up housework to blog.

Anonymous said...

I decided to draw the line at emailing and blogging. I need to have a little time for actual life.