On Blogging and Tumblring and Tweeting

My life, and the lives of many people in my generation, is consumed by social media. But as an unemployed graduate, I have noticed that it is all that I do now. I may not always tweet things, but I scroll through Twitter several times a day. I recently started using Tumblr properly. I am constantly on YouTube. Even when I am doing something like reading or watching a TV show, I note it on Goodreads or GetGlue. Even now, when I am thinking about how much I use social media, I am using it by posting a blog about how much I use social media.

It is never ending.

The thing that makes me curious, is why I feel this desire to constantly chart what I am doing on the internet. Why can't I just read a book and not rate it on Goodreads? Why can't I go for a run without telling Twitter about it? I can't really speak for why other people do it, but I can say why I do it and I think a lot of people can relate to it.

For me, social media is a way that I can keep track of the things I am doing and it is a way I can express my hobbies. The fact that I can track how many books I read in a year, makes me read more books. Telling people via Twitter that I went running and getting replies from them gives me some extra motivation to keep running and to get to that half marathon goal. Attempting to blog on a regular basis encourages me to keep writing about anything and everything. Watching YouTube videos has made me start seriously editing and putting videos together. All the time I have spent on Tumblr has made me think about making GIFs (I haven't started this one yet, but I feel that I will soon).

It is hard to do something on your own time and when there are not hard set goals like a work deadline or a homework assignment that is due. Social media helps me track the goals I set up for myself. Not being in school and not having a job can make a person feel pretty worthless, at least that is how I am currently feeling. So, if I can have silly things like write every few days or edit a video every week, and I can actually track them, well that can help me get a few things done that I always wanted to do and avoid wallowing in my self pity.