With the advent of Flickr, Facebook and Twitter, blogging has become a thing of the past.  Other than me and Andrew, I can’t say as I know anybody who has a blog anymore.  This one has suffered too, since most of my postings are done on social networking sites that are popular today.

I joined Flickr on July 20, 2008 as a pro user.  Since then, I’ve posted 1,656 photos.  No videos though – those go up on YouTube instead.  Flickr is incredible for sharing and organizing photos.  I love the groups feature, and finding neat photographers is easy.  I’ve gathered a lot of inspiration from people I’ve met on Flickr.  DaD is on there as well, and posts pictures of his model builds.  Andrew has a complete catalog is his Transformers collection and has quite a following of fans.

Facebook, I just can’t say enough cool things about.  I joined during graduate school in Fall 2007 as a means to collaborate with my classmate at ASU.  Now, nearly my entire family is on Facebook, and many of my friends.  My Dad, Ashley, Joe, Aunt Colleen, Grandma Cole, Uncle Keith, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Bret, Aunt Patte, Sara and Courtney, and so many others.

Even my MOM is now on Facebook, as of last week!  That’s something I never thought I would see.  In fact, we got Mom a cell phone on our plan, and she even sends me text messages a few times per week.

My Facebook Profile

Facebook is easy to use, easy to update, and allows you to keep in contact with tons of people at once.  It has become the primary means of communicating and socializing these days.  Andrew’s family stays away from it, as does my sister.

Twitter is another way to keep up with everyone, in short bursts of tweets.  Since joining on January 12, 2009 I have posted “tweeted” 467 times.  With just a line or two of text, you can broadcast to the world what you are doing at that moment.  Whether you’re getting ready for work, standing in line at a concert, or driving to California, it doesn’t seem to matter as long as you tweet it.  I follow a few dozen celebrities and some friends, as well as informational tweets like from the Town of Gilbert, or AZCentral.  We’ve found some neat things to do through tweets, such as free sliders or events at a local park.

Another feature I have recently come to love is Google’s Reader. It allows you to subscribe to and organize RSS feeds, which bring you news and updates from any website that posts with RSS. My feeds are organized into folders, which provides a good insight into my current interests:

Baking and Food
Business
Friends
Fun
Genealogy
Google Picks
Movies
News
Photography Sites
Scrapbooking
Technology
Travel

Is social networking the end of blogging?  Only time will tell. Ironically, I have started scrapbooking again after a 5-year hiatus. Kathleen and I went to the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention in Glendale, AZ the first weekend in October, 2009. It inspired me to work on recent vacations and event tickets. At least the art of recording information isn’t dead – it’s just evolving to use technologies of today!