I see, among fellow simmers here, a reluctance if not a hostility toward social networks that, I confess, I do not fully understand. Outside of flight simulation, I follow Twitter only and I like it. It is a little bit like the Aesop's tongues, the best and the worst of meat. It is what you choose it to be. Twitter has many smelly sewers but also a lot of nice gardens to take a stroll.

I have a very short list of about 55 accounts I like, with a rolling addition of about 10 that I change every so often. Every morning I get useful or pleasant informations and pictures on my fields of interest in art, archeology & palaeontology, sciences, economics, politics and geopolitics.  I don't care about how many followers I have and am too old to be influenced but not too old to learn. And I do discover new things every morning that I wouldn't otherwise through the press or television.

It takes a little time to hone one's list and some will to refuse the downward spiral of idiotic discussions but it is worth it.

@Dominique_K (see what I did there 🙂 ) based on the semantic prejudices in the other thread, apparently  999 of 1000 people here do not consider forums to be social media. This allows them to extrapolate their semantic prejudice to any form of group based electronic communication they don't like.

 

 

43 minutes ago, yurei said:

  semantic prejudice 

The Avsim forums belong, of course, to the social network family born with the BBS.

Is it prejudice or unfamiliarity  ?  I think our colleagues have not tried or if they did they got engulfed in stupid debates.  Twitter is a tool, which needs a little experiential learning.  You need to be picky in the accounts you choose and keep in mind that you will never convince anyone. It is a source of information more than a tool for influence.

Initiating this thread, I don't look for some polemical debate but just to say to friends, you may miss something. Have a second look.

PS I speak of Twitter, I never was interested in FB or Instagram.  I'd be happy to know about the experience others had with these media.

 

Edited November 5, 20205 yr by Dominique_K

I don't use Twitter or Instagram. For me, not enough information content for time spent in browsing.

I use FB a good bit. The FB groups, in particular for flightsim, are generally good (you have to pick and choose). 

The moderation on Reddit is a real problem for me. Again, low informational content for the amount of time picking thru the BS. 

Of course, I regularly visit a dozen or so vendor forums.

Avsim still one of my favorites because of the moderation, despite my being on the bad side a few times.

 

Edited November 5, 20205 yr by yurei

20 minutes ago, yurei said:

I don't use Twitter or Instagram. For me, not enough information content for time spent in browsing.

I use FB a go 

 

I do not use Twitter for flight simulation. It is indeed not very good for the purpose. Browsing Avsim, MSF official and a couple of developer sites is enough for me. I tried Reddit but it is, at the of the day, just an Avsim light (as you would say a Coca Cola Light) allowing profanities to look cool (except the new addon sub they set up). 

Twitter excels when you have nerdy niches of interest.  Just some examples : an account on Roman antiquity @OptimoPrincipi, an historian of the Silk Road @xujnx , a leading paelotontogist at Planck @jjhublin, a German group of archeological visualisation artists @archillu, a former Israeli general specialist in geopolitics @YadlinAmos, a bibliophile  @incunabula, an account the ancient arts of Japan @JapanTraCul a good scientific journalist @coreyspowell,  and so on and so forth. Many more. I spare you French and American more political accounts 😉.  

 They don't tweet everyday but everyday I have some interesting contributions that I couldn't get otherwise. You can then follow the trail on the internet. They open doors. 

That is why I say that those discarding Twitter offhand miss something. 

 What FB flightsim sites do you follow ?

I love Instagram, never really got into Twitter and I detest Facebook. I follow almost 800 (maybe excessive, I know) accounts and I'd say nearly 50% of them are aviation related! There's something awesome about opening an app on your phone and seeing somebody post a takeoff video that was taken only 1 minute prior!

On FB, almost all the 3rd party developers have pages where their latest news is posted (and sometimes only posted).

For sim, my favorite pages/groups are:

DIY Cockpit Sim Builders
Helicopter Flight Simulation
U.S. Flightsim
Mickey's FlightDeck
AFSBI
Helisimmer.com

For real world aviation news, training, etc. the below are my favorites:

BoldMethod
PilotEdge
Papel Tigres Aero Sq
American Bonanza Society
Combat LearJet
AvGeekery.com
ATC Memes
PilotWorkshops
Chasse Embarquee
The Aviationist

I spent 32 years in the computer support field. As the technology developed, we were issued cell phones and pagers. If we got called or paged, we were expected to respond no matter the time of day or night. I've since retired from the field, I deliver auto parts part time, and relish the fact that I'm not tied to those leashes. I have a personal cell phone now, but I often leave it in the car or at home when running errands about town. As far as social media, I dumped FB about a month ago and don't miss it one iota. Have never done twitter or any other instant message service. Don't need them. I'm guessing there are many others out there that feel the same. 

 

Of...I had yogurt for breakfast. Thought about cutting the grass, but didn't. Cleaned my kitchen and am currently flying a Citation II to KSAA for FSEconomy. Not sure what I'm having for dinner...:)

20 minutes ago, NormH3 said:

I spent 32 years in the computer support field. As the technology developed, we were issued cell phones and pagers. If we got called or paged, we were expected to respond no matter the time of day or night. I've since retired from the field, I deliver auto parts part time, and relish the fact that I'm not tied to those leashes. I have a personal cell phone now, but I often leave it in the car or at home when running errands about town. As far as social media, I dumped FB about a month ago and don't miss it one iota. Have never done twitter or any other instant message service. Don't need them. I'm guessing there are many others out there that feel the same. 

 

Of...I had yogurt for breakfast. Thought about cutting the grass, but didn't. Cleaned my kitchen and am currently flying a Citation II to KSAA for FSEconomy. Not sure what I'm having for dinner...:)

Norm,

It's all about the way you use the technology. FB has much better means for a user to control what they see than Avsim forum. My FB is kids, friends, airplanes, and flightsim. I don't even get much tubeliners in my airplane stuff 🙂

 

I missed the cellphone days but, boy, do I ever remember those word-not-allowed pagers. On the day I retired I drove across the Bay Bridge on my way home from San Francisco. Just after exiting the tunnel on YBI I rolled down the window and threw that word-not-allowed pager into the waters of the bay. That was when I learned the true meaning of freedom.

I hear ya, Doug!  As a field service tech covering most of the SF Bay area, I had a pager but no cell phone.  Can you imagine the pager going off and having to scout out a pay phone?  😠

@Dominique_K seems like you are getting the answers to your question about the use of social media. It doesn't stray very far from my initial impressions....😉

2 hours ago, charliearon said:

Can you imagine the pager going off and having to scout out a pay phone?

I can't but I've heard horror stories from my wife. She was a hospice nurse and often (too often) would get called out in the middle of the night. Sometimes she'd go to see a patient she'd never seen before. So here she is, a good-looking woman roaming the streets in what were not always the best of neighborhoods hoping that the directions were correct and she wouldn't have to find a pay phone to call someone at 3-4 a.m. For those folks the cellphone was almost a miracle.

I know what you mean about no cell phone. From the late 70's until the late 90's, I was a rock and ice climber. Spend many a winter trip, snow half way up the wheels on my VW bus, miles from anywhere without a cellphone or GPS. Would leave the wife a hard copy map and an expected return time. Did many solo ice climbing trips that way. 

Still here we are being "social" in an electronic medium. 

I used to have a FB account but asked for it to be deleted years ago... Never used Tw@tter..

I suppose one good thing about Twitter is that you're limited to 150 (I think?) characters per reply, so that should stop people re-quoting someone's lengthy post in its entirety.. although would a "re-tweet" bypass that?