Okay, sitting here at the Catholic New Media Conference (CNMC) Melbourne, and feeling a bit of a dinosaur. Fr John Corrigan sitting at the other end of the table. Fr Roderick Vohnogen is the main guest speaker, but we just had a very enthusiastic presentation by Catherine Smibert Toomey.
Here’s the summary so far: You could spend all your life on social media. If you are going to do that, make it count.
And the follow up message seems to be: There are a thousand different social media platforms out there. Use them all. (In fact, Cath just pointed us to a website called “Social Sprout” – which bills itself as a “social media management platform”. A platform for all your platforms.)
As many of you faithful followers who are still out there know, I’ve been at this blogging thing for almost 7 years. But I am still struggling to learn how to use Facebook (a lack of enthusiasm for this endeavour – upon which I am told my future prosperity depends – is admittedly a bit of an impediment), and only just learning to use Twitter.
My daughter uses Tumblr. Which yesterday James Bergin called “The Wild West of Social Media”. Thanks James. That’s where my daughter spends all her time…
I sense that most of you still reading this are fairly comfortable on the blogging platform. It’s great for writing on ideas and issues at length, and then exploring those ideas and issues in depth with the others around the commentary table (who’s got the port bottle?). Like me, you feel a little threatened by the proliferation of alternative electronic communications platforms. They’re too flashy, too faddy, too fast. We like slow.
I have the Feedly app on my devices, and I love following other blogs and news sites. It is like my own private newspaper every morning. I don’t have to “like” what I read, and I don’t have to broadcast to the whole world what I read this morning. But a co-worker recently told me that they they get all their news on Twitter. ????. Really. Feed-readers are so last year.
Anyway, I could go on. What I am feeling, among all these geeks (like Fr Roderick) and savvy young things (like Cath Toomey) around me, is that I am really a bit of a dinosaur (and that makes this ‘ere blog the prehistoric zone – something from the last decade). If I can’t even keep up with my blogging, what hope do I have on any other media?
“Fr John?”.
“Yes?”
“Do you use Prezi?”.
Blank look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about”.
OMG. Thank you, Fr John, you make me fee so much better.
