Twitter, Blogger, or Facebook?

Which social media site should I use today? When I look across my bookmark bar, I see a row of links that I could easily use to put thoughts onto the Internet. From left to right, I have Twitter, Blogger, then Facebook. I frequent all three of these sites, yet I contribute to them in much different ways. Now - after using all three as mediums of communication - where will I go to write what I want to say?

When I was a freshman in high school, I remember hearing my 18-year-old brother talk about a “face book” he used at his college. I took the meaning literally and thought of a book of faces or pictures. As my friends started to create profiles, I stayed out of the loop. I didn’t need a Facebook. Reluctantly, after my junior year of high school, I joined the site and have used it ever since. Today, I use Facebook to network and stay connected with friends. I see myself as more of a consumer of information than a contributor, so I seldom post on Facebook and keep my information relatively private.

Near the end of high school, my brother introduced me to the world of Twitter. He and his friends had started using the site extensively, and I decided to create an account. In the past two years, I have only written 37 tweets. Most of these are written when I am in a new and exciting place or when I have something random to say - so random that I don’t want to associate it with my name on Facebook. I have 19 followers, and I would guess that only about eight or ten of them actually ever read any of my tweets.

And last but not least, I made a Blogger account earlier this year. So far, I have only written four blog posts - all for the same class. To me, writing on my blog offers me much more freedom than what I post on Facebook or Twitter. I have been writing posts about class topics, but I can see myself using Blogger as a place to write for the sake of writing. I do not feel comfortable posting something lengthy and personal onto Facebook, and Twitter is limited to 140 characters (how much depth can you get with that?). Blogger gives me more room to explore my writing.

When it comes down to it, which site I choose depends on my purpose for writing. If I want to throw out a short, random thought, I will head to Twitter and compose a tweet. If I have something interesting or important to say to a friend of a group of friends, I will jump onto Facebook and write a status or wall post. But, if I actually want to write something longer or say something meaningful and personal, I will use Blogger. I kind of like the fact that soon, my blog will receive very few visits. I’ll be able to write for myself. And although anyone can easily go onto my blog and read my posts, it will be a rare occurrence. I’ll be happy to have a completely public place for my writing - but one that remains relatively private. My views of social networking have changed through the past month. How will you use social media after experimenting with so many different forms?