In the most general sense, I guess the answer to that question is: Hardly fucking any.
It's been bugging me that the last Kerfuffle post I put up was almost a month ago, and it was one that took a month for me to write (with a few lay-ups tossed in as filler). While I was wondering what to put up next, I happened to notice that I started this blog in March of 2007... nearly five years ago. Activity has run hot and cold. Sometimes it's been more thoughtful, and other times it's been goofy.
The fact is, though, I am posting stuff all over the place all the time. It gets posted on sites and platforms and apps that didn't exist when I began Kerfuffle (at least in their current forms). I'm dropping stuff on Facebook every day, and on Twitter even more frequently than that. Many of those posts are link-driven, but usually with some kind of added intellectual contribution. Well, perhaps the contribution isn't all that chocked full of intellect. But it is a contribution none the less. Add to those the activity I frequently post on sites sites that are more visual, such as my Tumblr page (called Wait, What?) and Instagram feed.
I can post on any of these from my iPhone, but not all from my laptop (Instagram is totally iOS-based). Maybe that's one reason why Kerfuffle doesn't see as much activity as it once did. Posting is so often an in-the-moment thing, and the phone is always with me. Sure, the laptop isn't usually too far away and wifi is all but ubiquitous these days. But the phone is so damn easy and, well, now. That explains why the first two screens on my phone contain a combined five social networking apps.
Further into the screens are more apps that feed these platforms with even more content. Music apps like Spotify, Shazam and SoundHound; rating apps like Yelp, Where, and urbanspoon; and travel apps like Expedia an d Travelocity all are willing to push content if I enable them. Same for YouTube, of course. Hell, I have whole screen of nothing but Google apps, another with all the social networks that I rarely use like FourSquare and LinkedIn, and still another with a bunch of Twitter clients I don't even use. I don't lack for channel space.
Sometimes -- often, actually -- I cheat. Most of these apps/sites cross-post content to each other. Anything that goes on Instagram is likely to show up on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. But hardly any of that stuff makes it to Kerfuffle unless it flies through the Twitter feed. (That's it, up in the upper left column.)
It's kind of funny to me that I use all these, and yet I freely admit that most of the content would hardly be missed by anyone at all. So what does that mean? I have to try this shit out, since I am studying social media as part of my research at UW, right? At least that's what I tell myself (and others). But how does that explain my driving need to live-tweet any Badger hockey game I attend? I have no idea. I guess I do it because (a) I'm a techno-geek, (b) I'm a media nerd and (c) because its fun. Oh, right, and (d), of course: research. Yes. Research.
So, for research of course, why do you read this stuff? You can tell me in the comments... which I will probably access and read from my phone.
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