Thought patterns and mediums of expression
It is really fucked up how our mediums of expression affect how we think. When I (and everyone else) was doing LiveJournal regularly, I would mentally compose complete journals, paragraphs of thought. A lot of the time, they wouldn't even make it into an actual post, but it was how I structured my thoughts. Now, with Facebook (the blip of MySpace barely rates a mention), I find myself thinking in one or two sentence "thought-bites", and far too many people just reuse other peoples thoughts without any originality of their own at all (memes). It is a very "1984" thing, how restricting language was designed to shape the common person's thoughts such that it was not possible to conceive of rebellion or in any way counter to the parties agenda.
Not only that, but a LiveJournal blog, by its in-depth nature, would take time to write and folks would generally only post one or two a day at most, often less. Now we have this fucking flood of snippets and reposts and reacts that just doesn't stop, and much of it, instead of enriching, is just plain numbing. It is also, however, addicting, because we get locked into trying to sift through all the flotsam for the nuggets of value, but it takes so much time, and it comes at us so constantly, that we just get locked into a cycle of attempting to consume and process it all. Facebook obviously recognized this and capitalized on it with the mobile app update that, instead of closing when you "back out", instead goes back to the top and refreshes, hooking you into the scroll to see what's been added.
When people say they need a break from Facebook, I get it. I could probably use one, too, but it is literally how I determine my social life, and without it I would just be a workaholic hermit.
Not only that, but a LiveJournal blog, by its in-depth nature, would take time to write and folks would generally only post one or two a day at most, often less. Now we have this fucking flood of snippets and reposts and reacts that just doesn't stop, and much of it, instead of enriching, is just plain numbing. It is also, however, addicting, because we get locked into trying to sift through all the flotsam for the nuggets of value, but it takes so much time, and it comes at us so constantly, that we just get locked into a cycle of attempting to consume and process it all. Facebook obviously recognized this and capitalized on it with the mobile app update that, instead of closing when you "back out", instead goes back to the top and refreshes, hooking you into the scroll to see what's been added.
When people say they need a break from Facebook, I get it. I could probably use one, too, but it is literally how I determine my social life, and without it I would just be a workaholic hermit.