Going meta again
Recently there have been some discussions on my friends-list about lj and facebook and internet friendships and interactions again, and it got me thinking...
I really appreciate everybody I'm in contact with here on LJ, some people who used to be really prominent on LJ simply switched over to facebook, and we are friended there, but it really doesn't *mean* anything there at all. We aren't exchanging any thoughts or comments, it is actually super boring, and mostly directed at people that we have some form of real life contact with, while a blog fulfills a symmetry of both or one of these aspects.
Some really good on line writers just vanished, they are merely names on a list on facebook now. Once I knew what they thought on certain subjects, I read their poetry, their rants and saw their art. I wonder if they realize that they too have lost a venue. I guess they don't care, it was a matter of populace mass maybe? Plenty of them have agreed that LJ is or was better, and yet here we are, still on facebook, as mere names.
Other people fascinate me even more. They never had a bother in their life, and suddenly, all that matters is to have a "platform" blog - also at large instigated by the phenomena of facebook. It is as if the large, real-name beast that is FB has created an urge in some to "be someone" on line. Now, the urge in itself is far from new, but it is broader now. People start blogs because they travel, with their political musings, food recipes, and just about anything really, in a much higher tempo. Good old semi-anonymous blog forums like LJ, with communities and highly interactive tools, are not fancy enough. It's supposed to be "official" blog now.
I'm amused. The vast vast majority of "official" blogs I've seen have been veritable wank factories or fairly mundane. I do know that there are a lot of good blogs out there, a lot of worthwhile writing, but this new fb wave hasn't been adding much to them.
I wonder what the next broad public fad will be? And who will jump on it first.
I was on fb in 2007, so I shouldn't be on any high horses. It was actually people from Lj who lured me in, but fairly fast I was disenchanted, and have stayed that way, even though I have also stayed on there, albeit not very active.
Will we ever go back to the semi-anonymous or are we stuck in "being someone" on the internet now? Plenty of my lj friends have learned my real name over the years, and I have met many of you, and some I knew before LJ even, but you know what I mean...will the official name mark ever regress. Probably not. One lj friend (chocolatebark) said the other day that LJ and the people who like it will become like vinyl aficionados, or people that like really old classical video games. I'm not sure I completely agree, or at least I think that is some time away from now, but I do think that it is people who truly like the LJ platform, care about some people they read to some extent and are not overly concerned by public fads, who have stayed.
If we here on LJ only wanted to express ourselves, even in a rather private sense, there are many other ways available for that today. It is more than one trait that distinguishes the ones that stay from the ones that don't.
When it comes to communities, I still haven't found anything which is as good as LJ when it comes to broad interaction. I mean, there literally is *nothing* to do in a facebook group. Sure, there are updates now and again, but it is so lame and static.
And I've never been even tempted by the shortness of twitter. It's just boring to me, I've tried. But that, I admit, might be more of a personal preference thing.
Things get shorter, faster and more shallow on the internet, but this also is a pretty usual cycle. I think, there will be a new time for more in-depth forums, whether it will be LJ or not remains to be seen.
The point of writing on LJ?
well, that has to be one of the dumbest questions of them all. It's like shitting on all the people you read or who read you. What's the sodding point of writing updates on Fb? what's the point of having a "platform" blog?
I think the answer to why I write on LJ would be more genuine and less narcissistic than what I would answer had I written extensively on FB or on a theme-blog.
I'm here because I like you all and read you all, and because I keep a journal of my thoughts and life happenings, and it is as genuine as I can make it. There are a lot of human moments here, in our interactions, moments that come only with depth and length, and with actual dynamic interaction.
Finally: Asakiyume has posted about a Russian who wrote The Last Ringbearer back in 1999, and a year ago the English translation came out. It is a book written from the perspective of the defeated in the Lord of the Rings, under the premise that history is usually written by the conquerors. The book is free for downloading, so as to not get in trouble with the greedy Tolkien Estate.
The Russians, what they do reach us so late, and yet, maybe the Russians are what's keeping LJ afloat for a while longer?
I really appreciate everybody I'm in contact with here on LJ, some people who used to be really prominent on LJ simply switched over to facebook, and we are friended there, but it really doesn't *mean* anything there at all. We aren't exchanging any thoughts or comments, it is actually super boring, and mostly directed at people that we have some form of real life contact with, while a blog fulfills a symmetry of both or one of these aspects.
Some really good on line writers just vanished, they are merely names on a list on facebook now. Once I knew what they thought on certain subjects, I read their poetry, their rants and saw their art. I wonder if they realize that they too have lost a venue. I guess they don't care, it was a matter of populace mass maybe? Plenty of them have agreed that LJ is or was better, and yet here we are, still on facebook, as mere names.
Other people fascinate me even more. They never had a bother in their life, and suddenly, all that matters is to have a "platform" blog - also at large instigated by the phenomena of facebook. It is as if the large, real-name beast that is FB has created an urge in some to "be someone" on line. Now, the urge in itself is far from new, but it is broader now. People start blogs because they travel, with their political musings, food recipes, and just about anything really, in a much higher tempo. Good old semi-anonymous blog forums like LJ, with communities and highly interactive tools, are not fancy enough. It's supposed to be "official" blog now.
I'm amused. The vast vast majority of "official" blogs I've seen have been veritable wank factories or fairly mundane. I do know that there are a lot of good blogs out there, a lot of worthwhile writing, but this new fb wave hasn't been adding much to them.
I wonder what the next broad public fad will be? And who will jump on it first.
I was on fb in 2007, so I shouldn't be on any high horses. It was actually people from Lj who lured me in, but fairly fast I was disenchanted, and have stayed that way, even though I have also stayed on there, albeit not very active.
Will we ever go back to the semi-anonymous or are we stuck in "being someone" on the internet now? Plenty of my lj friends have learned my real name over the years, and I have met many of you, and some I knew before LJ even, but you know what I mean...will the official name mark ever regress. Probably not. One lj friend (chocolatebark) said the other day that LJ and the people who like it will become like vinyl aficionados, or people that like really old classical video games. I'm not sure I completely agree, or at least I think that is some time away from now, but I do think that it is people who truly like the LJ platform, care about some people they read to some extent and are not overly concerned by public fads, who have stayed.
If we here on LJ only wanted to express ourselves, even in a rather private sense, there are many other ways available for that today. It is more than one trait that distinguishes the ones that stay from the ones that don't.
When it comes to communities, I still haven't found anything which is as good as LJ when it comes to broad interaction. I mean, there literally is *nothing* to do in a facebook group. Sure, there are updates now and again, but it is so lame and static.
And I've never been even tempted by the shortness of twitter. It's just boring to me, I've tried. But that, I admit, might be more of a personal preference thing.
Things get shorter, faster and more shallow on the internet, but this also is a pretty usual cycle. I think, there will be a new time for more in-depth forums, whether it will be LJ or not remains to be seen.
The point of writing on LJ?
well, that has to be one of the dumbest questions of them all. It's like shitting on all the people you read or who read you. What's the sodding point of writing updates on Fb? what's the point of having a "platform" blog?
I think the answer to why I write on LJ would be more genuine and less narcissistic than what I would answer had I written extensively on FB or on a theme-blog.
I'm here because I like you all and read you all, and because I keep a journal of my thoughts and life happenings, and it is as genuine as I can make it. There are a lot of human moments here, in our interactions, moments that come only with depth and length, and with actual dynamic interaction.
Finally: Asakiyume has posted about a Russian who wrote The Last Ringbearer back in 1999, and a year ago the English translation came out. It is a book written from the perspective of the defeated in the Lord of the Rings, under the premise that history is usually written by the conquerors. The book is free for downloading, so as to not get in trouble with the greedy Tolkien Estate.
The Russians, what they do reach us so late, and yet, maybe the Russians are what's keeping LJ afloat for a while longer?