Tweeting an Instagram Picture

I almost always tweet my Instagram pictures, but now I'm not so sure if I will anymore. I read this article from Mashable that said including pictures in your tweets leads to a retweet, UNLESS its an Instagram picture, which will be far less likely to be retweeted. (Here's the article I'm referencing: http://mashable.com/2013/10/07/retweet-photo/) Womp. Womp. Womp.

I learned that reusing content across platforms is a good way to gain milage on your content, but now I can't even use my Instagram pictures on Twitter, which is a basic standard I have been doing since I began using Instagram? I mean I get that it makes it obvious that I am reusing it, as well as having to open a new platform, but that seems like a pretty big difference to go from much more likely to be retweeted to significantly less likely to be retweeted.

Clearly this perplexes me, and makes me wonder: am I that lazy that I can't just use the internal picture setup in Twitter, and then go Instagram it? But then again, are people that lazy that opening an extra window rather than seeing it directly on Twitter is that much of a hassle?

I tried this morning to tweet a picture and then Instagram it, but it just feels so forced putting it on two places separately. Also, by the time I tweeted it, I already decided it wasn't important enough to need to be in two different networks. So maybe having to break up the instant tweet from Instagram will make me reconsider what content is truly important to share.

Or maybe I'll just continue to be lazy and stop caring if I get a retweet.

Are You YOU on Social Media?

My friend and I were having a chat over lunch once about how people act on social media and it got me thinking, do most people use social media to express things they wish they could in real life, or are they the same person online as they are in real life? I tend to think of myself falling in the latter category, where I am the same person online as I am in real life. I tell the truth, I compliment the same things, I whine about the same things, I talk about the same things, my voice is the same, etc. What you see online is essentially what you'd get in person.

However, some people disagree. Someone I was friends with used to say that what they said on twitter essentially didn't count towards who they were in real life. They used twitter as an outlet for things they can't say in the real world, or don't actually apply to their life.

So what do you think? Are you YOU on social media, or is there some sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing happening when you hit your computer?

Let's get a good poll going! Also, leave comments, especially if you think you're different online than you are in real life. [polldaddy poll=7406652]

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Writing About Writing

One of the biggest realizations I had at NASCAR was that I loved to write. This really isn't anything new, so it's more of a rekindled notion rather than a realization. Anyways, I compiled a mental list of how I came to the conclusion that writing is probably one of my few true passions in life. Here's some of the highlights from the list:- To start with an obvious one, I started a blog as a hobby. - I really wanted to study English in college but didn't think it was pragmatic enough. - When I'm at work, I sometimes daydream about writing for myself rather than our clients. - I casually google search topics such as "creative writing seminars" like that's what normal people do. - When I ran into my first grade teacher she said she thought I'd have become a writer.

So clearly, if first grade me liked writing and so does current me, it's something I should be doing more of. However, the only type of writing I love is self-reflexive humor pieces, opinion editorials about inane current events, and extensive research papers.

Journalism doesn't quite work for me, as the most hard hitting news story I've written is about leggings not being real pants. Even when I wrote a front page article about the African drummers that came to our school, I somehow rambled at length about me dancing to it. How no one edited out my editorialized narration about myself is beyond me.

I've also dappled in fiction, and see this as the most probable fashion of actually pursuing writing, except for the issue that unless I am retelling exact stories, my imagined ones make no sense. My first piece of fiction that I remember writing was from third grade, where I wrote a story about taking a walk behind my house with a frog and then running from a bear, only for him to come tuck me into bed. When you're a kid you're supposed to have a good imagination, except for me apparently.

If I had it my way, I would take Joel Stein's job. The guy just writes about himself all the time and is hilarious. Getting paid to disseminate my opinions to the masses is essentially what my end goal would be. Unfortunately, that job doesn't really exist to apply for. Trust me, I've been trying.