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Hi. My name is T. And I’m not a social media professional, expert, douche-bag or whatever else you prefer to call it.
Quite frankly, I’m not sure what the big deal is and why everyone’s geeked to try and become one and add the title to their resume. It’s social media. And I’m not that interested. Sure, I use it. My face is on the book. I do the twitters. But I use I kinda tailor it for my own purposes that don’t have much to do with the focus of social media. That focus is to be.. well social.
To me social media should gear around your connections with other people on these various outlets. It’s what you have in common and what you make of it.
Unfortunately, it’s turned into going to a bajillion events to be noticed. And checking in on a million platforms. And well, I’m not all that interested in being noticed. Or trying to make friends. Or blasting out where I am at every second of my day. Social networking has turned into people trying to be the center of attention and trying to one up each other. Who can have the wittiest tweets? Who attends the most events? Who has the most followers? Who is seen with who?
I don’t give a fuck.
Sure, I have friends and acquaintances. And I care about them very much. But I’ve learned the hard way and learned a long time ago that it’s not about living your life for other people and to be noticed. At least not for me. And having a lot of followers doesn’t give you a lot of true friends. I’d rather have friends that text me, call me, and hang out with me on more than a social media event setting.
So, while everyone else is trying to be one…. I’ll stand on the rooftop and admit I’m not. Nor do I want to be. You won’t see me out there trying every single platform available and you won’t see me out there scheduling tweets. I tweet and post when I’m up and available and have something to say. I attend the events I am interested in and if I’m too tired or simply am not in the mood, I won’t feel compelled to go or risk my social status. I’ll leave the expertise for those that want it.
Does this make me anti-social? Those who think that obviously don’t know me. Oddly enough, I’m pretty outgoing and somewhat of an extrovert. I just don’t want to be an expert at it
The end.
Last night I headed to Sheila and Evo’s house to celebrate Debbie’s birthday Hawaiian style. Second Hawaiian themed party I’ve been to this month, and it was as fantastic as I expected.
As it started out that day, I ran errands that afternoon to find something I was in the mood to bring, ingredients for a dish to take along, and Strongbow for Debbie. I was able to pick myself up some Boddington’s but four stores had no Strongbow? Ridiculous.
By the time evening came around I was ready to head out. First stop though? Coffee for me and then Bevmo to pick up Strongbow. I ordered a large mocha from Solo (mmmm), but on the way to Bevmo discovered a flaw in the cup. It was religiously dripping.. not only on my almost white new pair of jeans but my cup holder was holding about 1/8 of my mocha. Ugh. So there was a detour back to my house to change jeans as well as grab a Pipeline Porter to start the night off, as it has Kona coffee in it. I guess I jinxed myself with the slight mention on twitter that I was thinking about turning my awesome off.
When I finally arrived, I thought I had ended up at the wrong house on accident; it was way too quiet! Good thing I was wrong, because I was ready to party. I handed Debbie her Strongbow and opened up the porter. I was then lei-ed twice at once and thus initiated into party mode.
Sheila made the best red velvet cake, despite it not having a red coloration. I’m serious. It was damn good. And I know red velvet cake. It’s one of the only two cakes I really like. I think for my birthday I will have Sheila make me her red velvet cake and CJ make me her cherry cake of awesome.
There were so many awesome people there and it made me so happy to be invited and considered part of the gang. Sometimes I think I am still an outsider to Phoenix so it’s nice to know that I’m really not. You are all amazing friends. Truly.
Dancing happened. Talking happened. Drunk dials happened. Chaos happened. Good times happened. Sea Monkeys happened.
I also realized that I have been a small topic of conversation. I think I came across last night like it was a bad thing, but it really wasn’t. It was kinda cute and flattering really. You guys are awesome. I have such great friends. Now just hook me up with a man that fits my requirements and we are good!
Oy. Now it’s time for Monday to start.
Now that I think about it, I might try my thought of capturing my tweets.
So without further ado, my day in tweets (The Hits Vol 1):
I haven’t felt like blogging much lately. I always think of things I want to say but then become too lazy or occupied with something else to elaborate on them so they just end up on twitter instead. I should start posting my tweets throughout the day when stuff like that happens.
I’m wondering if it’s the craziness catching up with me or that I’m becoming more of a twitter addict. Hmmmmm…..
Anywho, once again nothing super fantastic tonight because I’m either going to be motivated to work or motivated to head to bed!
Last night, East Valley Friday Nights (#evfn) was at Studio 5C in Tempe. It is three flights up on a building on the corner of 5th and College and has a gorgeous view of the skyline and the mountains. The artwork was fantastic and it was sponsored so we had free beverages and snacks (yay).
I hung out with my typical crowd and met some more people too (always fun). After viewing the art and chatting it up for awhile, I was convinced to head to Rula Bula after being told they had Strongbow on tap. Chaos soon began of course, and I believe I was quoted on twitter several times (and there were probably a dozen more that didn’t make the cut). We chatted, sang, I probably danced, and I got to try the most amazing ice cream I’ve ever had!!!! Well it’s definitely in the top five at least.
Afterwards, a few of us came back to my house to play Rock Band and it was fantastic.
This morning I had about 7 twitter friend follow requests. Yay
I’ve been spending a lot of time since I have been back from Vancouver thinking about what I could possibly write about Interaction 09 and all that I learned and experienced while I was there. I have realized that it was about so much more than the education on techniques, processes, and deliverables that were shared in workshops, lightning rounds, and keynotes; it was also about friendship.
There is no way for me to completely describe how amazing the experience was from a personal level. Up until Interaction, I had never met any of the people that were attending face to face. Thanks to Crowdvine I was able to begin tracking the people that I wanted to meet. There were people that I had conversed with through volunteering for the IxDA via email and phone. There were some that I had found through the lovely IxD twitter crowd, and there were some I was just plain a fan of. Not only did I end up meeting nearly all the people I had aimed to (Christian, I promise next time we are doing coffee or something), but I met so many more that I admired and those I had never been aware of until the conference started.
I made some great professional connections, but even more than that, made truly mind-blowing friendships; friendships that are truly real and extremely overwhelming, to the point of being emotional. Being around so many talented minds was truly inspirational.
However, as with anything else, I also learned that some relationships end up being one sided. Sometimes these relationships can appear to be fantastic, but when evaluated, it’s learned that you are the one putting all the effort into the relationship and making it work. Not much is being returned to you. While this does have to be done on occasion especially when learning a new craft or skill, I feel that mentors and other role-models should play a more active role in those relationships. It made me start to evaluate who I interact with on a daily basis through mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, and email.
And now, a list of people that I found truly awesome at Interaction, that I hope to continue to learn from and build better friendships with.
If I am following you on twitter (and even if I’m not), chances are very good I want to keep in touch. My account is locked, but please request a follow. My id is @toniambartz
If I left your name out I truly apologize. There was no way I was going to be able to write about everyone tonight – I would never get to sleep. I want to keep the friendships and conversation going.
Pics of my adventure are scattered both on Flickr and Facebook
Well tonight is my last night at home for quite a few days (close to a week). I am currently working on running the dishwasher, doing laundry, and updating my phone plan to an international one. I might not be awake enough to pack tonight but I will be in a great position to crash early tonight and pack tomorrow morning.
I am headed to Vancouver for Interaction 09 tomorrow morning and will be there until Monday evening. I am so excited for not only my first trip to Vancouver and my first professional conference, but also to meet so many IxD colleagues I have connected with via Twitter, mailing lists and other outlets. I will be attending some fantastic workshops and hearing some fantastic speakers.
I am going to be disabling my incoming and outgoing text messages while I’m there to try and curve the cost of international calling, but those will be back on sometime next week. I am also going to attempt to limit data usage on my BlackBerry so twitter and email access will be whenever I am able to use wireless on my laptop.
Tomorrow I will be trading in my sandals and tank tops for hats, scarves, and boots. I’ll see my PHX peeps later on, and I’ll see my IxD crazies tomorrow!!!
I crossed something off my list last night – going out by myself. One thing that is so great about Phoenix is all the things that go on and how there is such a sense of small community in such a large metropolitan area. Every Friday there is a gathering after work in the East Valley called EVFN. This week I decided to go and see what happened. It started out at the Blue Adobe Grille in Mesa, which ended up being a disaster. We retreated for another bar shortly later, which ended up having karaoke. I also was able to put faces to some twitter folk, never a bad thing!
I planned two things for Friday night so I had to leave early to head back to Tempe to go to Last Exit. I was headed there to meet another twitter gal. Her boyfriend’s band, Sawcello was playing, and I love live music and we both have realized we are going to be BFF’s soon… and we were right. The band was great but I was tired by the time the night was over.
I’m sure part of this will sound odd. Especially since although I am very much very involved in new and emerging technology and social media blah blah blah, I am not one to do the friends online that I don’t really know thing. With that being said, Twitter has become a great networking tool since I’ve moved and it’s really helped me connect, find things to do, and find others in the area with common interests. Yay to twitter helping the transplant.
