It's fairly straightforward – Twitter is for making sassy comments about politics; LinkedIn is for posting your career updates and Tinder is for, er, finding true love.
Except, that it isn't. Not anymore. Boundaries that used to strictly define which social media sites are used for what purpose are more blurred than ever.
There are reports of time-hungry business people trawling through LinkedIn seeking dates, and likewise, savvy Tinder users are swiping right to score free pizza.
On Instagram – the home of the selfie – it is being used to crowdsource funding for various projects, including music videos for indie bands.
Director of CP Communications and social media strategist, Catriona Pollard, says these mixed uses are on the rise as people get creative.
"Millions of people are using social media every day and they're going to be using it for their own specific reason. And that's what social media is about – making it useful for your own purposes.
"Tinder is essentially a game – people have been using it to get pizzas delivered. It's becoming a game."
The "pizza game" is when one person on Tinder asks one of their connections to order them a home-delivered pizza – for kicks, as a sign of devotion, but also simply to see if some will actually do it.
A date in 140 characters or less
For Melbourne writer, Amy Gray, Twitter has become an unintentional place to meet new friends and boyfriends. She has been approached several times by men and compares Twitter to "a busload of excitable teenagers, often awkwardly trying to flirt with people they don't know".
"It is always obvious when someone is trying to pick you up; there's the obsessive 'faving' of tweets, particularly anything that involves selfies, trying to engage with everything and the ol' slide into the DMs [direct messages] to engage you in personal chat."
While most of her experiences have been positive, she says there have been some drawbacks, including:
"I dated someone for a brief spell and we attempted friendship after but Twitter was making it weird. Even though we didn't follow each other, they would obviously mine my timeline and use it for info – casually texting they were reading a book but not reference I had mentioned the book on Twitter earlier in the day," she says.
"The real kicker was when they had a photo of where I lived as their cover image. I no longer talk to that person and they're blocked now."
Connect with trouble
While there's little harm done in asking people for donations, mixing business with pleasure on platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter could get Romeos and Juliets into trouble. While some people may be flattered by the attention, for others, it's harassment.
In Forbes, American publicist Jessica Hatcher spoke of her experience in being approached by strangers on LinkedIn, trawling for dates and casual hook-ups. Hatcher had been bombarded with various offers for dates or comments about her looks, but after receiving a sexually explicit message from a male connection, she blocked him and reported his actions to the social media company. But then "he must have gotten my email address while we were still connected" and he started harassing her, calling her a "bitch" and saying her photo was "slutty".
In Australia, property manager Taylor Henderson went through a similar unpleasant experience.
Ms Pollard says there is a fine line between approaching someone and being a creep.
"I have heard from lots of women who have complained about getting messages from guys that are not professional. And if that happens, the sender is going to instantly lose credibility, if you don't do it in the correct way.
"There are all sorts of ethical considerations."
While using Twitter as a dating playground may be fun for some, other mixed uses of social media could see users behind bars. In November last year, The Age revealed that gay men were trading the illicit drug ice on hook-up app Grindr.
Adam Brown, senior lecturer in media studies at Deakin University, says people will be mix-using social media without even realising it.
"Even the use of a 'favourite' on Twitter is used as much an acknowledgement that you've read something as it is highlighting a tweet that is liked," he says. "And perhaps just as unsurprisingly, adult webcam or sex-chat sites are used for social interaction and conversation at times rather than sexual experimentation and gratification alone."
