Has Social Media Contributed to Your Life Interrupted

Can we be honest? Answer this question, "Has social media contributed to your life interrupted?" Have you found that your daily schedule embraces a variety of social media platforms? That you perhaps kick your day off with some tweets to friends and followers on Twitter? Or do you perhaps connect through Facebook? Or, maybe you are connecting through Squidoo and the Squidu Forum? Or, some other social media platform? What happens to your routine when you find you cannot access those platforms?

Well such was the case on Thursday, August 6, 2009, at approximately 9:20am EST. For me, it was another of my multitasking days with my work job and my online job. I was communicating via tweets just like so many of you. However, when I was hitting the submit button on Twitter, it would spin and spin and spin without sending my tweet. Refreshing helped a couple of times until 9:20am EST. I typed in a tweet and found it wouldn't register. Then, I refreshed the page and totally lost Twitter. For me, I found I could not access Twitter for more than 4 hours; probably closer to 6 hours. OMG, did that NOT seem like a lifetime?

So, what is this all about? Why do we seem to have such a reliance on Twitter? And, would you have thought one year ago that we would be sitting here talking about this reliance that we have on Twitter? That Twitter has taken hold of our daily lives. Well, I think it is quite a phenomenon.

I've recently been addressing some topicable issues which all taken into consideration raise the need for a reality check! Yes, I think it is time to assess what it is that we are doing -- what really matters? And, maybe thinking to the extreme -- time to 'stop the insanity?'

While you are contemplating some of these issues, may I offer up to you some reading material?

1. First, you must recognize that you experienced this: Life Interrupted -- Yours, Mine and Ours!
2. Next, you want to have this: Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki -- Thank you Guy!
3. Last, go ahead and shout this: Stop the Insanity -- Feel Free to Vent!

Join me on Squidoo to express yourself and get a load off your mind! I know I've gotten LOADS off of my mind over the past several years thanks to Squidoo!

TWEET, TWEET, TWEET! -- Follow me, JaguarJulie on Twitter too! Let's kick our days off together!

Are Your Tweets Disappearing Into Outer Space?

Have you ever gone back to do a search on your Twitter tweets to find that one particular tweet that you sent earlier in the day, only to find it NOT searchable? Have your tweets been disappearing seemingly into outer space or maybe the Bermuda Triangle?

There has been some discussion recently about certain Twitter members having their tweets not appearing or registering in searches. You can find that Twitter has addressed those issues in their blog.

For me today, there was one particular tweet that I went searching for and could simply NOT locate no matter how I configured my Twitter search. That got me a little concerned! I love Twitter and have been telling every one I meet how much it is such a great resource. Guy Kawasaki, a master twitterer has touted the merits of Twitter at length. Today, Guy Kawasaki stands at nearly 28,000 tweets to my meager 5,300. I wonder if Guy ever considers that maybe not all of his tweets are registering to be searchable.

How did I detect that my tweets weren't registering to be searchable today? It was maybe 1:15pm or so in the afternoon. I had been following @twittyquestions clues for the daily competition. I was zeroing in on the answer with the help of the two clues:

"While you can't see me...""you'll quickly know if I'm not there"

Then along came this clue that cinched it for me: "What do Colbie Caillat, Jesse McCartney, and the Spice Girls have in common?" I knew the answer was "oxygen" as that was a common denonimator amongst those three people!

So, I tweeted my answer: "oxygen #twittyquestions #contest" -- you can see the tweet in the screen capture below which I uploaded to twitpic.


However, when I went back to twitter search to search on twittyquestions, #twittyquestions, jaguarjulie, oxygen -- I tried lots of combinations -- I could simply NOT pull that tweet up in the search results. I tried a number of times, and then noticed someone else came along to play -- first with the answer "water" and then "oxygen" -- that was a full 16-20 minutes after my tweet! Well, by the end of the afternoon, since my tweet wasn't registering in search, the other player got the prize today for the correct answer.

Bah Humbug indeed. Outer space or the Bermuda Triangle coming into play -- whatever happened, don't you wonder if all your tweets, no matter how priceless, are registering?

I'm an optimist I keep telling myself -- I am of the thinking that there will be a reindexing of all the Twitter tweets today and that missing tweet of mine might fall into position! Gosh, I sure hope so.

Does Guy Kawasaki ever notice that he is missing tweets? I'll have to ask him. How about you? Has this happened to you? Oh, say -- wanna follow me on twitter and watch if this happens again. Follow JaguarJulie!

I am temporarily unavailable as I am undergoing maintenance

Today, at 12pm Pacific time, 3pm my time on the East Coast, Twitter was undergoing maintenance expected to last one hour. When you tried to access your account, you were greeted with this adorably cute graphic image along with the note, "Twitter is currently down for maintenance. We expect to be back in about an hour. Thanks for your patience." Gosh, did you ever think what you did before Twitter came along? Nope, I can't imagine that.

I feel pretty much that way with Squidoo too! Although I probably love Squidoo a little more -- but heck, I am a Giant Squid 100 Club member after all who has authored over 430 lenses and had three lenses of the day. If you are a lensmaster, you know that I was the 2008 Giant Squid of the Year and that my Stuffed Cabbage lens earned the Best Cooking Lens and has recently earned a purple star and the #1 overall spot on Squidoo.

With the one-hour of maintenance that Twitter scheduled today, it gave me time to write this blog post about that and to reflect on a Twitterstorm lens that I've authored about Twitter! How Often Should You Send a Twitter Update? I've checked in at TweetStats to get my average tweets per day which have climbed from about 8.2 to 11.2. But, because of the maintenance today, I'll probably drop in the number of tpd's!


Well occasionally Squidoo does a little maintenance, but I don't think it is usually scheduled in the middle of the afternoon. You see there are so many lensmasters who work throughout a regular day tweaking their lenses and authoring new lenses. Once in a while, something goes astray and there is that unscheduled or unexpected maintenance. That's when I recall seeing this Ooops -- taking me back to Square One! Oh, and also giving me the needed time off to blog!

Bottomline, we have our various online platforms which occupy our days. It really helps when we can see a sense of humor about it to help us lighten up in times that might make us a little testy! Know what I mean???

MAY 27, 2019 - TEN YEARS LATER!

It is Monday, Memorial Day, here in Leesburg, Florida. I have been editing my Google blog posts for the past several days and finally made it to May 13, 2009. Holy Smokes, but ten years ago? What's crazy about my blog posts is that they contain a piece of my soul. Looking at my original and authentic content literally takes me back to the day that I wrote that content. And, thinking about the crazy and unscrupulous content scrapers on the internet really pains me.

TweetStats graphing your stats

I was just checking in to see what my TweetStats are for today and saw a really interesting graph that I've included. My thinking is that the higher the percentage, the more communicative a Twitter member is with replying to @others! I'm also thinking, that if YOU are reading this here blog post, that you most likely know everyone that is listed on this graph!


The reason I initially checked my stats today was to see what my number of Twitter Updates are per day. You see, I'm conducting a scientific study via my TwttrStrm, How Often Should You Send a Twitter Update? I am now up to a whopping 8.5 tpd -- tweets per day! That's up 0.3 from previously reported 8.2 tpd. I've just hit an overall number of twitter updates of 1,714 -- not quite as many as the professional twitterers! I guess you could say that I am averaging one twitter update per business hour in a normal 8-hour work day!

So, what's your score? Take the challenge and be sure to weigh in on the debate!

A cool mosaic of your twitter followers

Want to grab a cool mosaic of your twitter followers? Well thanks to walterhiggins.net it is easy as 1-2-3! Simply plug in your twitter user ID, click on "Get Follower Mosaic" and that's it! You can then paste the code into your blog or web page. You can check out @walter and follow his twitter updates. Very cool! Thanks Walter.

I don't think Walter Higgins is doing that mosaic service these days. I did find a number of sites offering this type of mosaic. Simply Google "mosaic of twitter followers" and you should find one to suit you.

Want to follow my twitter updates? Check me out at jaguarjulie.


PS You'll note that if your followers change their pictures that you'll have to update your mosaic code.