The Ramblings of a Beer Runner Social Media Experiment

I'm no Internet neophyte. I've been sending e-mails since the late 80's. I actually know what Lynx and Gopher were. And long before it was a multi billion dollar company hopelessly trying to keep up with Google, I was using Yahoo to look up websites way back when it was on the Stanford University website as intrepid Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and Dave Filo were building it. So of course I'm keeping up with the latest Internet trends no later than 2-3 years after everyone else seems to have adopted them.

Like this Twitter thing. I still don't get the point of how or why it works, despite a few people patiently explaining it to me. The problem is, I'm starting to run into people who communicate via Twitter, and have no way to receive their messages. I'm like my Grandmom, who wonders why everyone but her gets pictures of her great grandchildren, not realizing it's because everyone else but her has an e-mail address to receive them electronically. I'm getting comfortable growing into old fart-hood, but I'm not ready to identify technologically with Grandmom quite yet, so figure it was time to get a Twitter account. I won't let a little thing like not understanding the point of Twitter stop me for using it. So if you're into that thing, you can follow-up me @rambling_oa_br.

And now a Ramblings of a Beer Runner is on Facebook. I would like to say the main motivation for this is to reach out to my readers, break down the barriers of time and space to bring people together in a spirit of beer and running harmony. The truth is actually based on vanity and ego. I would rather have more people read what I write than less, and Facebook is another way for people to find this blog and keep up with it. Yes, a Facebook page does allow me to get to know my readers a little more directly, and vice versa. You will not be faulted if you don't necessarily think that's a good thing.

So will these new forms of social media bring us all a little closer and help us understand everyone a little better, or will it lead to even more time wasted on the Internet? This is not intended to be a trick question.