Evolving

I joined Facebook on December 13, 2004 during my sophomore year of college (something I never would have known if it wasn’t for the new, slightly scary Timeline feature that was just unveiled) and spent hours one evening revisiting forgotten memories and old conversations. After having a good laugh, I was a bit taken aback (though not entirely surprised) when I stopped to think about exactly how much information is stored online, how dominant social media has become, and how quickly it can change. It’s only been a few short years since Facebook was exclusive to college students and novelty factor aside, I can honestly say it really had no impact on my daily life back then. Now, if filtered properly (and yes, at times thoroughly), it can contain a wealth of information from posts on current events almost as they happen to something as simple as discovering new music being shared by a friend. I also rely on status updates more than I want to admit to learn about things going on around me – for example I missed the apparently incredible sunset this past Friday but later that night saw 12 pictures and 20 enthusiastic posts from Tacoma, Bellevue, and Seattle in my news feed that thoroughly filled me in on just how beautiful it was.

In addition to Facebook, I check in on Twitter semi-frequently to keep up with musicians, artists, athletes, and friends but don’t use it nearly as often as I intended to when I first signed up. I recently joined LinkedIn to begin networking and had the pleasure of blogging on the Seattle Sounders website during the World Cup in 2010. I also have a website that I built in order to showcase my collection of artwork and plan on expanding it with a blog that will highlight recent print acquisitions and will review gallery shows from around the world.

I think the rapid growth of social media in recent years has provided me with an outlet to share and learn something new almost every day and I have found it to be both interesting and engaging, yet realize that at times it can be invasive as well. It was incredibly fun reading old posts and stories from college on Facebook, but it was also a reality check to realize how deep the internet truly is and that even though it’s constantly evolving, nothing ever really disappears. It’s definitely scary to think about how much of ourselves we hand over to an undefined, virtual world for everybody to see, but at the same time, I believe we should also feel lucky at how much is given back to us in return. I think moderating both the input and output of information we send and receive is an important balancing act and if done right, we can gain a lot from what the social media boom is offering us.