All my friends know that I am a slowpoke when it comes to Social Media.
When I first started blogging, most online influencers are bloggers. There weren't as many bloggers during those years because updating blogs required a certain amount of dedication, but many people were too lazy to maintain one. Then came twitter which was quite fun for awhile, and more convenient for mobile users. Now, we have more and more influencers who gained their initial base of followers on Instagram/Youtube, instead of Blogs. As you can see, the peak period of blogs seem to have passed.
When Instagram first came out, I wasn't very interested until mid 2012 when Isaac and Ben very randomly signed up an account for me while we were having dinner. I was hooked afterwards and I am very happy that I didn't missed out on all the fun due to my stubbornness to explore new social platforms!
Then now, there is Snapchat......
I have downloaded Snapchat many times and deleted it many times. I just don't see the point in Snapchat. Recently, many influencers have been active on it so I gave it one more chance lor. But I didn't find myself snapchatting nor viewing videos much.
Here's why.
1. There is no "explore" function to check out other snapchatters. I could only add by username, which is only possible if I was following someone on instagram and that instagrammer posted a shoutout. It would be great if I can check out who my friends are following, just like instagram.
2. There was no way I can add someone without first "previewing" their content.
3. It is quite pointless to view a long video of somebody else's mundane day especially those that has no highlight nor meaning. Maybe I am not following enough interesting people?
4. Videos get deleted after 24 hours... For me, blogging and instagramming is a memory pot for me. I dump all my thoughts and photos, then maybe when I'm thirty or something, I can read back and remember the moments. So sharing videos on Snapchat is kinda not my thing - I might as well share my videos on Youtube if I wanted to, then at least years later I still can check out what I did today!
5. Plus, it eats up lots of mobile data! People say use wifi lo. But I only use phone when I'm on the go and not connected to wifi. If got wifi, I would be on the laptop already.
And this final point was the trigger point to why I don't feel motivated to post videos anymore.
6. There was a period of time I tried posting more videos and I realize that some videos vanish before they get posted. Imagine watching a movie and certain parts of the storyline gets cut off -_- And also because videos to be posted on Snapchat can only be taken using Snapchat camera, it means that when such things happen, the videos cannot be repost from my camera roll too. Imagine I see my favourite celebrity and decided to snapchat the moment, and it vanish?? Then the moment is really gone forever! Hence, if it's a special moment, I feel safer using the phone's main video function which saves into my camera roll folder. But that also means that special moment doesn't go up on Snapchat, only mundane unimportant ones.... Which brings back the point of... what's the point?
I have friends who told me that it helps them to be updated about their friends' day. I guess that's one of the point, but nah.... I guess I prefer the traditional way of catching up - text/meet.
Maybe I will love Snapchat in the future just like how I misjudged Instagram at first. So anyway, that's Snapchat. But why am I not that active on Instagram, Dayre, Facebook, and Twitter as well?
I really don't know how other people do it, but I find that updating all these social accounts on the go is very much a hassle.
I really cannot multitask! When I am out and about and if I want to instant update on Dayre or Snapchat or Instagram, I will have to stop whatever I am doing and concentrate on posting. Then I won't be able to truly enjoy the moment already. Lol. Like if I see something nice now, I will quickly take a photo but wait till tomorrow when I have nothing to do already then post and think of caption. I guess other people have faster fingers and brains? Haha. So actually instagram is latergram for me. I know posting on Instagram is actually so much easier and faster than blogging.... But I am very picky.... I want to post only nice photos on Instagram. Hahaha. Like many people, Instagram is a gallery of "highlights", only good and pretty things go there. But for my blog, everything goes on it, even the bitter bits.
I think most people find Dayre useful for times when they are on the transport on the way home, etc. But usually when I have time, I would be on LINEchat or Instagram first, then by the time I am done, I have no time to update Dayre anymore! Haha. And I don't like to post halfway. So for example if I am blogging this on Dayre and I reach my bus stop already, I will get down the bus and sit at the bus stop to finish my story before I move on. Hahaha. Another reason I don't use Dayre much is because I am not a very mobile person. I don't really like typing on my phone and I like to talk alot and explain alot when I have a thought so typing on a laptop keyboard is really much faster and easier for me!
I like Dayre, as it is a convenient alternative to blogging as it's easy to use and mainly mobile-based. But if I am already blogging, then how do I differentiate what I post on dayre and what I post on my blog? I guess people who post on Dayre mostly curate their blogs like how I curate my Instagram? But for me my blog is my main overall outlet which will have everything that my other social media accounts have, and everything that I don't post elsewhere - both nicely edited photos and ugly low-res photos will end up here.
As an online influencer, of course I felt worried about not catching up on the latest social platforms but I guess inside me, I am still very much a blogger over other things. I love blogging long-form and I don't find it tiring or troublesome at all. If I had a splendid day or if I go travelling, I prefer to post a complete entry with words, instead of just uploading afew photos. And I am very lor-sor one! I need to have space to write long paragraphs of words. Haha. Imagine if I wrote this on any other platform, I think I would have ended at the first sentence.
So anyway, I guess every influencer has their own base of followers who like them for different reasons. I am a very average person - not pretty enough for Instagram, not funny enough for Youtube, not interesting enough for Snapchat. Unlike many people who probably have more influence on other social media platforms than on their blogs, I realize that bulk of my followers are still my blog readers. I have more people connecting with my blog entries than anything else I post on any other platforms. Haha. I guess I'm just a terrible instagrammer/snapchatter/dayrer/etc? I will continue doing what I do best and I feel very thankful that I still can do this after so many years thanks to the silent supporters who continue to read day after day.
But still, the rest of you can continue to follow me elsewhere:
Instagram: www.instagram.com/theiceangel
Dayre: www.dayre.me/estherxie
Twitter: www.twitter.com/theiceangel
Snapchat ID: theiceangel
Lots of love!
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