My father, who is also a reporter, used to have one important tool, a rolodex (for those too young to know, this used to be a rolling phone card file). Every night he came home and did a thing he called a "phone attack," where he randomly called all his sources -- not for stories, but just to touch base, chat, listen to what's going on in their lives. This is basically all you need to do to be a good reporter, maintain a lot of relationships with people in different walks of life. It's hard work but very rewarding. If you don't have people with their ears to the ground, you're lost. So like my father I try to regularly stay in touch with all sorts of people, and never to call a source for a favor if I haven't recently called socially, or just to check in. People hate feeling used.
I'll go to great lengths to avoid social sign ups. I want nothing linked to those accounts. It mostly comes from distrust of app behavior. I don't want any app blasting anything to my entire contact lists. This might be an irrational concern but its real. I'll use Google account to sign up for any service BC I know Google won't let an app run wild w my contacts. Other services I am not so confident
