[CHAT] Days of our <online> lives

Who remembers the good old days of MSN messenger?

and MySpace? 

Back before Facebook had come on the scene, you’d sit on MSN for hours at a time chatting with friends and pretending to log in *just* after your crush so that he/she would notice you were on (or was that just me?). Btw, Myspace is still a thing. Why? Who knows? But what we do know is that social media has changed – and grown – in a huge way. We’re liking each other’s FB statuses, retweeting, reblogging and sharing – connecting with each other in ways that were practically unthinkable a few decades ago.

All of this comes with benefits and risks, just like everything else in life. I’ll use Tumblr as an example: for those of you who don’t know Tumblr is a ‘microblogging’ platform where you have the option to make your own posts or ‘reblog’ (basically a type of sharing so that someone else’s post appears on your blog) a post. When I joined Tumblr I did not expect to find as many people as I have who share my worldview, and taught me so much about myself, themselves and the world. I was able to interact with people across the globe, and being Australian usually meant blogging with American nightbloggers who were awake during the wee hours.

Tumblr wasn’t – and still isnt’ – all glitter and fun times. A lot of the issues with Tumblr were similar for other social media platforms, and even now we’re still telling ourselves not to give out certain details about where we live. There’s always the worry that meeting an online friend IRL may not turn out as peachy as we might hope, and it can be difficult to read the intentions of a person you can’t actually see. This is where this week's Getting Real session comes in – hear social media stories of super great internet friendships, stories which didn’t turn out so great, and advice on how to stay safe online. Right here, Monday 29th June at 8pm AEST!