Communication
Facebook has gone well past the point of being more noise than signal. I miss real human interaction, and real content. I can't say that I will use Livejournal more, because I just don't know if that will be true. But I think I'm going to try.
The tricky bit is that facebook has trained me to censor myself to a point where everything that does wind up here gets completely locked down anyway. Or perhaps its wrong to blame facebook for that, and that's just a natural consequence of getting older.
I have become a whole lot more of an introvert over the past 5 years. Partly, I suspect, that is my natural state. The thing that initially stopped me from being completely introverted was the advent of internet communications. As a teenager I spent hours talking to people on ICQ, then later, on IRC and Livejournal. For a while at least Facebook seemed like an ok progression from Livejournal, but it seems to have reduced the capacity for real human connection over the internet to a bunch of two sentence status messages about things that are mostly very superficial. So the connections I have with people have been likewise reduced in many cases. This has the side effect of making me more self conscious. I am already prone to over analyse, but I have been over analysing what I think are the wrong things.
The people who I feel safe with now has changed. I favour smaller groups over larger groups, and the list of people I feel safe drinking with is vanishing small. Not that it will always stop me, but I'm more likely to feel regret the next day when it doesn't.
So, I guess, because this is a new year and all, I might see if I can make some ground in changing some of those things. No promises though, as when it comes down to it, I will probably still favour staying at home watching a movie over going to a party of people I really like and really miss seeing. Because its easier, and it feels safer.
The tricky bit is that facebook has trained me to censor myself to a point where everything that does wind up here gets completely locked down anyway. Or perhaps its wrong to blame facebook for that, and that's just a natural consequence of getting older.
I have become a whole lot more of an introvert over the past 5 years. Partly, I suspect, that is my natural state. The thing that initially stopped me from being completely introverted was the advent of internet communications. As a teenager I spent hours talking to people on ICQ, then later, on IRC and Livejournal. For a while at least Facebook seemed like an ok progression from Livejournal, but it seems to have reduced the capacity for real human connection over the internet to a bunch of two sentence status messages about things that are mostly very superficial. So the connections I have with people have been likewise reduced in many cases. This has the side effect of making me more self conscious. I am already prone to over analyse, but I have been over analysing what I think are the wrong things.
The people who I feel safe with now has changed. I favour smaller groups over larger groups, and the list of people I feel safe drinking with is vanishing small. Not that it will always stop me, but I'm more likely to feel regret the next day when it doesn't.
So, I guess, because this is a new year and all, I might see if I can make some ground in changing some of those things. No promises though, as when it comes down to it, I will probably still favour staying at home watching a movie over going to a party of people I really like and really miss seeing. Because its easier, and it feels safer.