Seniors Site

Social Networking: Learn the Lingo!

If you want to stay connected with people who matter most in your life, you need to keep up with the times. It may feel awkward at first threading unfamiliar territories, but believe me, once you get used to it, it’s hard not to get hooked on it! I remember the first time I experimented with social networking sites, it was with MySpace. My second was Facebook which I find extremely entertaining and maintained a healthy relationship with the site up to this day. From my first one, which I rarely use now by the way, up to my very recent—Twitter—I have had several in-betweens ranging from unknowns to almost famous. Yes, considering my age, I went overboard and a little social-network crazy!
During these years, I learned to speak the social networking language and I would be very delighted to extend this apparently “Lilliputian” knowledge but has grown important over the years especially to seniors who would like to join the ever growing social networking circle. Here are some basic social networking language you need to get you up and running:
·    Tweet. You only tweet in the microblogging service Twitter. To tweet means you put a message of about 140 characters in your Twitter account for your friends to see. It’s almost similar to shouting your thoughts to the world!
·    Post. You “post” anywhere. You post tweets in Twitter. You post entries on your blog. You post your status updates in Facebook. Post, for me, is a general term you can use for almost all your internet activities. Just like post-its, when you stick it to your social networking account, it stays there and everyone is free to read it.
·    Status. It’s what you are doing or thinking right now. You update your status according to what you feel you would like the world to know.
·    Network. This is your people. Your circle of friends. Those you have added and accepted as friends. They are free to see everything about you or at the very least, the things you have willingly shared through your account.
·    Profile. This is where your information lies. Your profile will show the progress you are making and the activities you engage in. This is also where you need to be very careful since your profile is visible to your friends and even to people you barely know.
·    Wall. Walls are popular around Facebook community. When you open an account with Facebook, you are automatically given your space to play with. This so-called space comes bundled with your profile page and of course, the ever popular wall. This is where your recent activities are charted and messages directed specifically to you are written.