Social media superstars?

[aliferste]

I have actually seen some people state they are going to the river to "rape the ladies"

I kid ye not!

[Wildfisher]

I'm no fan of political correctness, but that is pretty vile.

[corsican dave]

sadly, "social media" seems to be the most popular method of communication these days. and i generally agree with most of the comments posted above. i've been banging on about using fly fishing methods for fish other than the more "recognized" game fish for some time & have posted photos of my captures not for self-aggrandisement (you can rip as much as you like; i'm quite capable of taking criticism  :lol: ) but purely to encourage others. i have even started a "group" on facebook which has attracted similarly minded people. mostly... :roll:

so far so good. i want to make contact with fellow anglers who are passionate about catching carp on the fly and share ideas and experiences. social media appears to be the way to do this. for me it's just a different form of forum with potentially a wider audience. maybe i'm being naive?

one of the (many!) downsides of facebook is that by its very nature it's pervasive & your information is potentially accessible to everyone. on a personal note, this has meant that someone whom i hold very dear & a good personal friend cannot be a "friend" in the facebook sense due to conflicting opinions with one or more of my other "friends", who should more correctly be termed "contacts".

as far as fish photos are concerned, i've got personal experience of working with a young (& very professional) guide trying to promote himself & develop his business through facebook & other social media sites. is this wrong, or just media savvy? i would say the latter & i can assure you that his fish handling is exemplary! his photos are also in a different league to those selfies referred to by sagecirca (which are just the more modern version of those dreadful holiday snaps you used to get dragged round to see at your neighbours when you were a kid). he has often commented that  don't post many fish photos. my response is that 1) i don't actually catch much worthy of a photograph and, 2) i don't take photos of everything i catch  :

my bottom line is that it's the way things have developed. it's certainly not going to stop so you have a personal choice to either use it in a way that suits you, or not bother. how other people use it is up to them, but i agree it's pretty piss-boiling material most of the time!

[Wildfisher]

I started using FB for photography 18 months ago having been invited by several people. I steer WELL clear of anything to do with fishing and some of the  complete knob ends Dave has tacitly referred to above.

My honest opinion is this- it is a platform for showing off  and little more than that. It is very good for keeping in touch with friends you have not seen for a while and for personal trivia;   as an information resource it sucks - completely and utterly. 

The timeline concept means that on any even slightly busy page or group anything useful is quickly buried and for all intents and purposes is  irretrievable even if anyone knew what they were looking for to start with and could be bothered trying.

In short no one learns anything. It is 5 second attention span trivia central.

As information resources properly thought out and laid out  forums and vastly better.There is no comparison.

If social media is the future of communication and human  interaction we are, as a species, doomed.

[Inchlaggan]

Aye, pish isn't it!     First sayw it being used in T&s many moons ago and the others quickly followed.

Get out of Jail Free Card for T&S-

"If the Trout be the gentleman of the stream,
the Grayling is certainly the lady."

Francis Francis, "A Book on Angling" (1867).

[Wildfisher]

Get out of Jail Free Card for T&S-

Don't confuse this with facts Ken.  I still hate the bastards.   :lol:

[corsican dave]

The timeline concept means that on any even slightly busy page or group anything useful is quickly buried and for all intents and purposes is  irretrievable even if anyone knew what they were looking for to start with and could be bothered trying.

In short no one learns anything. It is 5 second attention span trivia central.

As information resources properly thought out and laid out  forums and vastly better.There is no comparison.

If social media is the future of communication and human  interaction we are, as a species, doomed.

all absolutely true Fred. especially the last point  :lol:

[SoldierPmr]

Hello my name is Liam and I have been facebook free for four years now  :lol:

Apart from forums such as this I stay as far from social media as possible they don't seem to hold anything of value and the petty arguments are continuous. What it does show is the real face of the human race as people feel safe behind the key board.

[Inchlaggan]

Hello, my name is Ken and I have been on Facebook for over seven years.
In the early gays of t'interweb some twenty-five years ago there was no social media, there were "chatrooms" some dodgy, some useful.
The Muscular Dystrophy Association (in the USA) ran one such chatroom on CompuServe.  An IBM executive from south Englandshire logged on, his new-born daughter had been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of muscular dystrophy and was on life support. Her doctors had told the parents that there was nothing to be done, take the weekend to come to terms with this before the life support was switched off and nature took its course.
The Father was desperate and the chatroom offered a faint glimmer of support. It was rumoured that a baby had received the same diagnosis in the USA and had been treated and survived. The chatroom became alive with attempts to verify this story and find the medics responsible.
This was achieved, and the medical notes transferred to the Father, who took them to the hospital on the Monday.
Treated from the notes, the child survived.
That episode, in which I played a very minor part, persuaded me of the power of t'interweb.
I choose how I use "social media" with great care and, on balance, it is OK for me. I am not blind to the problems, it is how the resource is used not the resource itself.
Retired now, my only contact with said-same Father is via Facebook. Just checked. His daughter is still with us, yes, many problems, severely limited physically, but not mentally.  She can live with that, so I can.

[SoldierPmr]

That is a great success story Ken though there is a lot of good on the internet and vast amount of knowledge it is deeply ruined by the sheer amount of trolling going on these days which sadly over shadows such stories that you have just shared.