I like social media.

Conversations = life.

That’s why social media is so interesting. It is enabling conversations in ways that were never possible before. We can now talk to people halfway around the world, with relative ease. We can converse with Dunkin Donuts, band Cut Copy, or actor Nathan Fillion. We can talk to thousands of people at once, or hear thousands of other people’s ideas at the same time.

I’m on Twitter. I joined Twitter way back in March 2008. That’s only two years ago (and two years after Twitter started), but 2 years is forever in web-time. I grew to love Twitter as I started to use it more. I’ve found hundreds of uses for Twitter, such as keeping up with friends, or providing a company with a suggestion for product improvement. I’ve even used Twitter to get support from Comcast, since it was much faster than their phone support.

Twitter started as a way to answer the question “what are you doing?” So in its early days,  It’s still evolving as a platform, but obviously it’s a major success and it’s not going away any time soon.

I’m on Facebook. I joined Facebook right after they opened it to high school students, in my senior year at Belmont High School. Immediately I could see it was a tool that would be immensely useful. All of my friends were available in one place, instead of fragmented between AOL Instant Messenger, email, phone, etc. It became the easiest place to plan an event with friends or to ask someone about a homework assignment. The nice thing about Facebook is that you’re dealing with real people, whom you actually know.

I’m on LinkedIn, too. This network is a more recent addition to my social media arsenal, since it’s all about business. I can connect with business acquaintances, provide co-workers recommendations, and discover the email of that colleague I previously worked with. It’s useful for keeping in close contact with people that you might not be “friends” with (as in, not Facebook friend material), while being more personal and professional than Twitter.