Editor’s note: Recently, CBM Creative Director Matt Ray challenged Junior Blaster Kaitlin Gentile to do an analysis of the social media presences of both herself and her two triplet siblings. Do they have the same habits? The same favorite platforms? The same senses of humor? Read on to see what she discovered.
You know those dreaded icebreakers that teachers make students play every first day of school to help the class get to know each other? Well, since this is my first ChatterBlast blog, I’d thought I start off with one.
Hi, I’m Kaitlin, and I’m a triplet (best icebreaker ever). For the past 21 years, I’ve shared everything from friends to birthdays to graduations with my two sidekicks, Colleen and Nick.
Life as a triplet is pretty cool, but it’s not always what people think it’s like. Besides sharing the same birthday, we have always been super different. For example, we don’t have “triplet telepathy” (as much as I wish we did), we don’t look very similar, and we never really matched our clothes.
…okay, that one’s a lie.
With our non-identical triplet track record, it only makes sense that our social media presences are pretty different. Even though we all use the same five platforms, we each use them in completely different ways.
As the oldest (and wisest), I’ll start with myself.
Meet me: senior communications student at Temple University, social media intern, Instagram addict.
Instagram is my thing. I am on it constantly—maybe a little too much, depending on who you ask—but what can I say? I appreciate a good candid and a savvy caption. In my opinion, Instagram is the easiest app to enjoy. It is the most aesthetically pleasing, and it’s the best platform to use when you just want to mindlessly scroll through content, unlike Twitter where you need full concentration to decipher Cher’s cryptic tweets.
For me, YouTube’s not a hit either, since you have to dedicate so much time to keep track of what your favorite vloggers are up to. Plus, I really don’t care if Colleen Ballinger is spending too much time on her channel talking about her pregnancy. (Sorry Colleen.)
Meet Nick: senior sports medicine major at West Chester University, middle triplet, professional Snapchatter.
Nick is hands-down a Snapchat addict. He defines his friendships in streaks; if you’ve reached over 50, you’ve made it to a solid acquaintance. (Kidding!) But really, Nick’s streaks are pretty impressive and are not taken lightly. His longest streak is 453 (and counting). He uses Snapchat to joke around with his friends and looks at it as a way to get a good laugh.
The one irrelevant platform in his life is Facebook. Ever since Mom friended him, the platform has been slowly dying, and the constant ads between videos aren’t helping either.
Meet Colleen: senior business student at The University of Scranton, youngest triplet, YouTube lover.
Colleen thrives on YouTube, ending everyday with a YouTube nightcap. She mainly watches comedians like David Dobrik and Emma Chamberlain, but will dabble with the occasional baking video. To Coll, YouTube is unfiltered reality TV filled with petty internet rivals. (It’s better than the Kardashians! Okay, that’s a little far but you get the point.)
Other than YouTube, Coll spends a lot of her social media time on Instagram as well. Most of her time is spent scrolling through her feed, but occasionally she’ll post pics with friends/family. Don’t ask Colleen what her favorite pins are because when it comes to Pinterest, she simply doesn’t believe in it.
We obviously have our similarities—none of us are huge fans of Twitter, none of us are pinners, and in our eyes, Facebook is just Facebook. But all in all, our three different life experiences go to show how differently everyone’s social experiences are.
Regardless of whether someone is the same age, gender, ethnicity, etc. as another, we all use social media in our own way. Social media is a very subjective experience. We all love, hate, and like different content on different platforms, so we can’t lump social media into one general user experience. It’s different for all of us, so keep on pinning, tweeting, liking, sharing, or whatever you’re into—it’s your experience!
