I’m over the Facebook thing. I think I just stay to lurk over the friends I met here that are all over there. I miss having this little spot, though, even when the memories are rough.
I am out of the habit of regularly writing on my page, but I am still here. I know exactly what you mean when you say that you are over the FarceBook. Alas, many of the friends that I met on LJ have since migrated to the Suckerbag Digital Roach Motel and no longer share themselves here. Frankly, I am "over the Facebook thing" as well, and I deleted my developed account with all of the contacts a year or two ago. I think there may be a vestigial account there, with my name on it, with no friends postings or history, but I haven't mustered enough curiosity to go check if I deleted that one too. I can't remember if I did, and can't work up enough interest in "Meta" to even check. FB colors my impressions of human beings and especially people I know, with cynicism, and I hate that. I think you are entirely onto something when you point out to sharkbait that: "Everyone got tight-lipped over there, whereas here, you knew almost everything about the people on your friends list" Facebook does that to people.
I suspect that the reason everyone shuts up over on FB is that Facebook misses things that LJ has better implemented: selective exclusivity, anonymity, and more of an autobiographical feel, which encourages a certain kind of candor and vulnerability that FB cannot capture. LJ, despite the fact that this phenomenon can be twisted and abused, inspires authenticity in people who seek it. It's motto could be: "This, above all, to thine own self be true." Facebook, on the other hand, is all surface. It encourages us to be about perception and perception management.
While it is true that honest people strive to be authentic, differentiation is a life-long road, and a difficult task. LJ caters to our need to separate ourselves into different people for different social interactions, despite the fact that this is the thing we are trying to overcome if differentiation is our goal. LJ is kind of a crutch or training wheels, because it offers us a selective anonymity to explore our authenticity and self-revelation at our own pace and at our own control. Consequently, it inspires us to experiment and take risks. Facebook, on the other hand, militates that you choose one face, one voice, to show everyone, and while that may be a worthy goal for which to strive, Facebook metaphorically throws you into the deep end of the pool, and perversely, this tends to lead to people catering to the lowest common denominator in what they show the world: the safest "image" that is publicly consumable by a "general audience" that consists of "everyone we know" or even "the public at large."
I suspect that the reason everyone shuts up over on FB is that Facebook misses things that LJ has better implemented: selective exclusivity, anonymity, and more of an autobiographical feel, which encourages a certain kind of candor and vulnerability that FB cannot capture. LJ, despite the fact that this phenomenon can be twisted and abused, inspires authenticity in people who seek it. It's motto could be: "This, above all, to thine own self be true." Facebook, on the other hand, is all surface. It encourages us to be about perception and perception management.
While it is true that honest people strive to be authentic, differentiation is a life-long road, and a difficult task. LJ caters to our need to separate ourselves into different people for different social interactions, despite the fact that this is the thing we are trying to overcome if differentiation is our goal. LJ is kind of a crutch or training wheels, because it offers us a selective anonymity to explore our authenticity and self-revelation at our own pace and at our own control. Consequently, it inspires us to experiment and take risks. Facebook, on the other hand, militates that you choose one face, one voice, to show everyone, and while that may be a worthy goal for which to strive, Facebook metaphorically throws you into the deep end of the pool, and perversely, this tends to lead to people catering to the lowest common denominator in what they show the world: the safest "image" that is publicly consumable by a "general audience" that consists of "everyone we know" or even "the public at large."
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Well said!
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