Social Media Overload
Sometimes I forget that writing can be fun. Since the Orlando shooting my Facebook feed has been full of people's articles and opinions and think pieces and blog posts and screenshots and I'm just sick of it. Before that there was the gorilla thing, and everyone's opinions on that. There there's everything about both elections, US and Australian. It's take the joy out of the internet for me and left a bad taste in my mouth.
I'm aiming to spend more time on LJ simply because it's not so crowded. Here it feels like I have room to breathe. Like what I have to say matters, even if it's just to two or three people. It's hidden away from the prying eyes of strangers and nosey aquaintences, and even though my real life friends don't use it, I value my time spent here.
Here it doesn't matter what people think of what I write because no one knows me. I'm really tired of feeling so exposed on the internet with my real name and my face everywhere. I can't imagine what it must be life for celebrities, with total strangers watching them and taking their pictures and hanging on their every word.
I'm not sure what to do about the problem of Facebook. Apart for the myriad of reasons why Facebook is terrible, it's just messy. It's not personal anymore. Every second item in my feed is a share from a page I don't follow, or a status I've already read that's been bumped up because someone commented on it. All the various corporate monstrosities have now invaded my "social" media experience with their fucking ads and "fan" pages, as if the billboards, posters, radio, tv, potify, youtube, magazine and youtube ads weren't enough. It's a lot of junk and there isn't really any way to disconnect from it, and it's getting worse since people have started using it to contact me about film stuff at school. I don't want strangers reading all my posts. I'd rather just not add them to facebook at all. The problem is everyone else uses it and nothing else. I'm considering starting a second account specifically for school and work related stuff, but I'm not sure if there's much point. I honestly want to delete my account all together but I've met two people in the past who I care about deeply that I never really talk to because they don't have it. I've met a bunch of great people through it but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble. Then there's fucking Twitter. If social media platforms were junk food, facebook would be a Big Mac and Twitter would be Pixie Sticks. It's just an endless stream of nothing.
Everything is so bland. Everything looks the same, and it's so hard to customise anything. You have to use your legal name, there's no room for creativity or exploration. Everything is so easily turned into a product, even the thoughts you have throughout the day, packaged and shared in a neat little status. I never had a MySpace but I had an IMVU page that I learned how to twiddle with HTML to customise and make it pretty. There's just not room for that sort of thing anymore. I'm sick of looking at white and blue pages of spoonfed curated bullshit.
Maybe the obvious thing is just to spend less time online? I've tried deleting the apps from my phone but the odd occaision that I do use them for stuff like posting photos to Facebook I really only use the app. I dunno man, there's just too much crap around. The internet must have been a lot more fun when not everyone used it.
Lately I've been doing this thing where instead of posting a status on Facebook, I send it as a text message to someone who I think would appreciate the thought, or want to have a conversation about it. I think I prefer things this way, plus I get free text messages.
I dunno, lately I've been examining everything with a critical eye. I don't feel like the time and energy I spend trying to communicate on social media are really getting anything back from it, but being online was such a huge part of my formative social development that I feel like I'm currently fighting with a lover. I'm trying to rediscover what made me fall in love with the internet in the first place. The freedom, the lack of defined rules, the ability to be whoever you want to be, to meet people from all over the world who are as weird as I am. Those are the things I want from my online life. I will keep searching and finding other avenues. I may even get business cards with an email address on them, just for kicks.
I'm aiming to spend more time on LJ simply because it's not so crowded. Here it feels like I have room to breathe. Like what I have to say matters, even if it's just to two or three people. It's hidden away from the prying eyes of strangers and nosey aquaintences, and even though my real life friends don't use it, I value my time spent here.
Here it doesn't matter what people think of what I write because no one knows me. I'm really tired of feeling so exposed on the internet with my real name and my face everywhere. I can't imagine what it must be life for celebrities, with total strangers watching them and taking their pictures and hanging on their every word.
I'm not sure what to do about the problem of Facebook. Apart for the myriad of reasons why Facebook is terrible, it's just messy. It's not personal anymore. Every second item in my feed is a share from a page I don't follow, or a status I've already read that's been bumped up because someone commented on it. All the various corporate monstrosities have now invaded my "social" media experience with their fucking ads and "fan" pages, as if the billboards, posters, radio, tv, potify, youtube, magazine and youtube ads weren't enough. It's a lot of junk and there isn't really any way to disconnect from it, and it's getting worse since people have started using it to contact me about film stuff at school. I don't want strangers reading all my posts. I'd rather just not add them to facebook at all. The problem is everyone else uses it and nothing else. I'm considering starting a second account specifically for school and work related stuff, but I'm not sure if there's much point. I honestly want to delete my account all together but I've met two people in the past who I care about deeply that I never really talk to because they don't have it. I've met a bunch of great people through it but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble. Then there's fucking Twitter. If social media platforms were junk food, facebook would be a Big Mac and Twitter would be Pixie Sticks. It's just an endless stream of nothing.
Everything is so bland. Everything looks the same, and it's so hard to customise anything. You have to use your legal name, there's no room for creativity or exploration. Everything is so easily turned into a product, even the thoughts you have throughout the day, packaged and shared in a neat little status. I never had a MySpace but I had an IMVU page that I learned how to twiddle with HTML to customise and make it pretty. There's just not room for that sort of thing anymore. I'm sick of looking at white and blue pages of spoonfed curated bullshit.
Maybe the obvious thing is just to spend less time online? I've tried deleting the apps from my phone but the odd occaision that I do use them for stuff like posting photos to Facebook I really only use the app. I dunno man, there's just too much crap around. The internet must have been a lot more fun when not everyone used it.
Lately I've been doing this thing where instead of posting a status on Facebook, I send it as a text message to someone who I think would appreciate the thought, or want to have a conversation about it. I think I prefer things this way, plus I get free text messages.
I dunno, lately I've been examining everything with a critical eye. I don't feel like the time and energy I spend trying to communicate on social media are really getting anything back from it, but being online was such a huge part of my formative social development that I feel like I'm currently fighting with a lover. I'm trying to rediscover what made me fall in love with the internet in the first place. The freedom, the lack of defined rules, the ability to be whoever you want to be, to meet people from all over the world who are as weird as I am. Those are the things I want from my online life. I will keep searching and finding other avenues. I may even get business cards with an email address on them, just for kicks.