Facebook Is Interfering with My Blogging Habit
I have to admit it: I like Facebook. I like having tiny connections with friends spread far and wide. Some of them I'm in regular contact with anyway, but some are people I would never see, never email, never call, or receive such messages in return. We are all so busy, so wrapped up in our adult lives of responsibility, whatever form that may take. The status updates I read (and write) with increasing fervor are like little word snapshots. They are windows into other worlds. Peeks into someone else's screenplay. They are usually surface-only glimpses, but they are better than nothing. They are way better than TV for their ability to distract me and bring me out of my own little sphere.
And I like the tiny validations I get when people comment on my updates. I like knowing that someone witnessed, even in this small, thumbs-up way, what is happening with me. What's more, the frequency of updates is greater than the LiveJournal posts I also monitor religiously (stalk?). In this way, Facebook is more reinforcing-ask Ian. Behavior modification is all about frequency of reinforcement. And so, my behavior over the last several months has been modified by Facebook. I'm writing less frequently here. I'm writing and reading more frequently there. It's kind of like crack. But "Facecrack" is a sucky name for the phenomenon.
And I like the tiny validations I get when people comment on my updates. I like knowing that someone witnessed, even in this small, thumbs-up way, what is happening with me. What's more, the frequency of updates is greater than the LiveJournal posts I also monitor religiously (stalk?). In this way, Facebook is more reinforcing-ask Ian. Behavior modification is all about frequency of reinforcement. And so, my behavior over the last several months has been modified by Facebook. I'm writing less frequently here. I'm writing and reading more frequently there. It's kind of like crack. But "Facecrack" is a sucky name for the phenomenon.