Social Media

I'm posting less and less on Facebook, in a trend that started quite a while ago, though I check it usually twice a day. The bulk of my posts are re-posts of someone else's stuff. Some friends are on Facebook often, some more distant friends are there often enough for me to want to scan and see what's up. I belong to many interest groups and I am entertained and informed by what I see there. For example, I've got some Aerogarden hydroponic systems for growing lettuce and herbs, and I've found helpful tips and always someone to answer questions in a dedicated group there.

Whatever happened to Tumblr? I know my girl still has a couple of blogs she occasionally will post on, but with no where near the tempo she used to. I set up several Tumblr blogs, because they were so easy to post from the phone. The usual format was always at least one picture, and not very many words. I had done one for Rocky, the Very Hungry Labrador. After he was gone this summer, I sent the whole blog into an actual book. It's an amazing account recorded as it happened of all he ate during the eight years I had him, and I'm glad to have it. Because I had a blog dedicated to him, it was very easy to get into book format. I was thinking I wanted something similar for Bixby, but decided to go with a dedicated Instagram account.

I love this moody photo! I think this is why
I decided Bixby needed his own account.

I actually post much more often on Instagram and fewer of them are cross-posted to Facebook. What I post on the 'gram are photos I have taken with a very short caption - re-posting someone else's stuff is actually difficult, not like Facebook. I follow mostly different people on Instagram than Facebook - including celebrities, which I don't follow or like on Facebook. I like fashion and lifestyle posts. The company recently have made it easier to set up multiple accounts. It used to be you needed a separate email for each Instagram account, but now it can be on one email, and switching between them is just a couple of taps on the phone. Commentary says Instagram has also redefined itself subtly as an app for content consumption rather than creation. The multiple accounts feature is pushed in app as a way to separate and organize who you follow, not how you post. For example, have one to follow your closest friends and another for celebrities. 

The way I have the 'gram set up right now is one account for me, and one for Bixby (@bixby.sato). I switched my account to "private" (I have to approve anyone who wants to follow) and blocked anyone I didn't actually know who had opted to follow me. Bixby's account is "public". I switched the many dogs I follow to Bixby's account, which has cleared my feed up a little. Most posts from Bixby get tagged with something like "rescuedogsofinstagram" so others may see those posts. I'm allowing anyone to follow - we're up to seven followers!  One of my main motivations for Bixby's separate account is because it will be possible to pull from a single Instagram account into the layout software to do an actual book someday. But I was amused, about a week after I set up Bixby's account and was really into the dog-related hashtags, to get a message telling me I could set up a deal to be an influencer. (Or for Bixby to be an influencer!) Not my cup of tea, not why I'm doing this, but amusing none-the-less.

Still not a daily twitter user. I go there when something is happening, and when I've exhausted other social media and for some reason need to keep scrolling. I follow different people there, and it's sometimes fun to see their take on things.