Dissolution

[darkemeralds]

Is anyone else trying to re-figure out how to have an online life? Is anyone else feeling that Google+ is cool but how many more social networks do I need? Does anyone else wonder if there's still a place for a journaling site like Dreamwidth and LiveJournal in their life?

I'm finding G+ very homey--more succinct than here, not quite as flighty as Twitter. Less conversational than here, but more interactive than Tumblr. It feels like a comfortable stream of connection.

Of course, it's new. Not many people are on it yet. Everyone's behaving like early guests at a nice party, so it's also much less contentious than here tends to be sometimes. (I have invites, by the way, if anyone wants one.)

Journaling/blogging has been a mostly wonderful experience for me for the past six years or so, but I feel it slipping away as a concept. I hate to let it go, but fighting the flow seems futile. Does anyone else feel that way?

Comments

[branchandroot]

I think it depends on what kind of network you like, or feel fits you. I don't do Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or any of the other short-form networks; they just don't suit me. I'm a narrative kind of girl. So I'll stay with the journal sites. But if the short-form suits you, and you find one you're comfy with, well there you go.

[communicator]

I'm the same; I prefer long-form. I think it won't slip away, but it will settle down to a group of people who like that more wordy interaction.

[jumpuphigh]

I use Dreamwidth, Tumblr and Twitter which are all connected to jumpuphigh. I bailed on Facebook (despite enjoying it) due to privacy concerns. I'm not going with G+ because I think that Google has embraced "Do Be Evil" as their new motto.

However, I use each service for different things. Dreamwidth is for lengthy thoughts and making interactive connections. Tumblr is for posting pictures and I expect it will fall away once that has been integrated into DW. Twitter is for quick thoughts, short questions to friends (I often use it like text messaging), and sharing links. I loved having a separate real name space on FB but couldn't ignore their behaviour any longer but if another service comes up that I can trust (not Google), I think I would create that separate identity space once more.

tl;dr Every service I use has its own purpose and for the most part cannot be replaced by another.

[pinesandmaples]

A lot of the blogosphere discussion about G+ being the end of bloging sounds like the discussions centered around the end of books. Books are still here, with a large and loyal audience. I'm sure blogs will still be around with a large and loyal audience, too. G+ isn't the same as a blog, and I don't think they are trying to be. The elegance of a long-form post will never look as good in the narrow center column of G+ for me.

[darkemeralds]

Good point. I may find that I prefer the long form too. It offers a satisfaction that the shorter forms can't.

I think perhaps my complete avoidance of Facebook (on aesthetic rather than political grounds) causes me to view G+ as more of a novelty than I would if I'd lived on FB for the last couple of years.

[darkemeralds]

Heh. Dreamwidth, Tumblr and Twitter: the sequence is kind of analogous to laptop, tablet and smartphone--the Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear formats.

Perhaps I am wrong in carrying the metaphor to the point of supposing that one of them must be ju-u-u-u-st right.

[darkemeralds]

PS: I'm curious to know more about your view that Google has embraced evil.

[darkemeralds]

Excellent point. The fragmentation into increasing granularity continues apace on the internet, doesn't it?

I don't sense G+ being the end of blogging generally--any more than Facebook has been--but I'm wondering whether it will prove to be the end of my blogging. Mind you, even on G+ I tend to be wordier than the average--and I'm not sure I've ever been a "blogger" per se. I change the subject too often.

[darkemeralds]

pinesandmaples makes a point below that I realize I was missing: I was thinking that I must settle in one place or on a single format (as you've done), when in fact there's nothing preventing me from using different formats for different purposes.

It raises some interesting (to me) questions about concepts of flightiness, fickleness, faithfulness, etc., that I hadn't realized were operating in my mind.

[ruric]

I loathe FB with a passion but have one under my RL name to keep up with ex-collagues some of whom are and some who're not on LinkdIn. I tend to check my FB once every couple of months - if that.

I've got both a fannish and RL twitter - though I'm not using the RL one much. I should get on that. And TBH I use my fannish one to stalk actors/musicians and see what they're up to *G*. So Twitter is much more my skim late night reading for 10 mins before I hit the sack.

Tumblr? I don't really grok it. I made one but haven't used it yet and the only time I tend to look at it is when other peeps post links to ones of interest.

If you have a free invite I wouldn't mind seeing what Google+ is all about - but for the moment I'm staying primarily DW/LJ based.

[jumpuphigh]

Well, I have no expectation of privacy in anything I do via Google. I do use Gmail and Google Voice because those are great services that I can make work for me. I just don't use them for anything that I'm not willing to have shared with the world. And since I use those services, and would like to continue using those services, I'm not willing to sign up for a service with them where if I go afoul of their unclear policies, I will lose access to everything that I currently use. I also do everything I can to keep my information from search engines but it looks like using Google+ will eventually make my public profile (required by them) part of their search results. Plus, I have problems with any service that requires me to use my legal name. (Check out googleplus for tons of links, including lists of reasons why this is a bad policy.)

This pretty much sums up how I feel about them data mining.

[darkemeralds]

Thank you. Extremely informative and thought-provoking.

[darkemeralds]

If you have an email address you don't mind my knowing, PM me with it and I'll get a G+ invite out to you.

My loathing for Facebook is primarily aesthetic. It just struck me as ugly and cluttered and filled with nonsense (and old high school friends whom, for valid reasons, I haven't seen in 30 years) and kind of sleazy.

I'm with you on Tumblr. I asked my 20 year old niece to explain it to me. She couldn't--and she's a writer. She gave me kind of a vague, "You know, it's a thing..." reply.

I have a fannish and a RL Twitter too, for the same reasons. My fannish one (Darkemeralds) is a steady stream of celebrity self-aggrandizement and amusement. My RL one is for my employer.

[ravurian]

Hmm. Something in me loathes the idea of constant access, and of people having constant access to me. I felt utterly liberated when my phone was stolen back at the beginning of the year, and when my laptop wasn't functional. I won't be joining G+ - it's just something I've no interest in discovering. Ditto Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr. I'm not much interested in disposable electronic voyeurism, or unfiltered pseudo-telepathy in quite that way. Which, I appreciate, sounds rather more judgemental and dismissive than I meant it to be.

None of which waffle addresses your questions. I... am finding it hard to get back online recently. I'm ambivalent about whether I want to - I do and I don't. I do miss writing in my journal, and the connection I had with people through it, though.

[darkemeralds]

Yeah, I didn't even consider sending you a G+ invite because it seemed pretty clear that it wasn't your cup of tea.

Personally, I love the constant access and don't find it the least bit invasive. Isn't that curious? I would attribute it to my living alone and having a personality that puts me at significant risk of isolation, but that's kind of glib. I don't know--it just feels good to me, comforting, somehow, to know that the world is within reach. And I'm pretty comfortable with the off-switch, too.

Part of the reason I've drifted over to the Google side is that I've found things here on DW more contentious than I'm comfortable with.

The word "comfortable" appearing twice in this comment is probably fairly revealing.

[phil_v]

I'm going to stick with LJ and DW since I'm more comfortable with them then FB and Twitter. G+ is the new toy and I need to get used to playing with it. :)

[rainkatt]

I refuse to have FB, hate Linked In, even though I got on it when I was looking for work, don't get Tumblr. I have a Twitter account, but am rarely over there. It seems to take a certain mood.

I wouldn't touch G+ with a ten-foot pole, and am wondering about the state of one of my email addresses, and all the stuff I have stored there. I don't want to use my real information in a lot of circumstances, and feel that anyone who does that whole rant about sharing personal information and using one's real name or you're a troll, has never been stalked, ever, not even for a few minutes.

Most of my online life is for fun and sharing with the fan community that I found when I started watching Buffy, even though it's moved on from that. It's not for sharing with people I work with or "family" or other folks I bump into in real life. If I've met you online, I'm more inclined to share both sides of me, though.

I have no desire to hook up with my family or anyone I went to high school with, though I did give my family my LJ name in a moment of insanity about eight years ago, so they could be watching, but I don't much care at this point.

Google Plus sounded scary to me right off the bat, and I'm avoiding it completely.

I'll stay here, even though I'm not posting much at the moment. I'll stay on Ravelry, as well.

[bluemeridian]

I would have to second this line of comments - both the different services for different purposes and taking Google with a hefty grain of salt. I use gMail and gReader extensively, but I'm not comfortable with the direction that Google is taking as a company right now. I'm sticking with them because there simply isn't good alternatives for me to jump over to at the moment.

Having said that, there have been a number of times where there was a thought in my head that I wanted to share, but it just seemed too short and abrupt for a whole post, which I don't have the time or desire to sit down and write just then. I realize some people post that way, but it just isn't my style. Of course, when I do go to write a post then either I forget about it or it doesn't fit into what I end up talking about, so I just leave it out. At this point I wouldn't say that I've found my most comfortable collection of services, although DW/LJ is definitely part of it. FB is necessary to me because of some people that I would otherwise lose contact with (and who are not geographically close), plus it lets me link them to posts I've cross-posted to Blue's Garden (non-fandom posts, basically). I've fiddled with Tumblr, but it hasn't grown on me yet, mostly because I have to jump through too many hoops to make sure something is properly attributed to its source.

I will say that my little network collective does include Delicious, which not everyone might think of that way. But that's how I find a lot of recs and how I help put the word out about ones I like.

[darkemeralds]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply!

I'm giving serious thought to my use of Google Docs after reading through responses here and elsewhere. There are other cloud spaces where I can write (cloud computing is very valuable to me both for backup purposes and because I migrate among several devices and need access to my stuff no matter which one I'm using). The incredible convenience of Google makes switching a huge chore that I don't have time for--it synchronizes my contacts and calendar across platforms, and keeps all my stuff for me in a single accessible place. But Now I'm wondering if I was smart to let that happen...

Dreamwidth continues to be a haven of freedom of expression, and I don't see myself leaving or giving up my paid account anytime soon, but, like you, I don't always have something blogworthy to say. Back when I started, it was perfectly acceptable to make a very brief, fly-by post, but it seems almost rude to do it now, because that's kind of what Twitter and G+ are for.

Everything's in flux! I will say this: one of my very favorite social networks is Ravelry. It's absolutely brilliant, and I've spent many, many happy hours there.

[darkemeralds]

It made me smile to see all the old Firefly gang popping up on the first days of G+.

I'm finding it pleasant and easy to use, but several comments here and elsewhere have persuaded me that DW/LJ is still a valid and worthy internet home for me.

[darkemeralds]

Ravelry wins!

I'm still struggling, I guess, with what my online life is for, if you know what I mean. I agree completely about not wanting the FB milieu of old high school friends and inane chatter--can't stand that place and opted out right after I opted in.

But I don't think I can separate my online life from my life-life. There has been too much overlap for too long. I've been quite closeted about my fannish life, and I've treated it much as you describe. Family members know my LJ/DW names, but they can't be bothered to read me.

Then there's Flickr. I use it to store real photographs as well as "journal illustrations" including things like screencaps from shows, fic illustrations, etc. Family members who look at my photos can deduce certain things from the bits of stuff that I either fail to make private, or have to leave public in order for the posting link to work right.

But Ravelry! That is the most wonderful internet place. Did you see the fantastic Slate article about it?

[lyr]

I guess I'm a talker, and I like platforms that are predicated on enabling rather than limiting that. I may not post super often, but I refuse to be succinct when I do. So no, I don't feel the concept of blogging is played out yet, and even when it is, I think there will still be plenty of holdouts like me. As a gamer, I've seen lots of people stick with the old games, even long after tech has supposedly got shinier and newer. I guess, just like blogging, people stay where they're comfortable.

[kis]

My feeling is that the more options we have, the more fragmented our communities will become. Maybe that's a good thing for individuals in the short term, but in the long term it'll be like strip broadcasting (or whatever it's called): we'll just inhabit increasingly narrow niches and then moan about it being lonely and/or boring.

Certain behaviours on my home planets of LJ and DW have made me less enamoured of them, and I've done plenty of moaning in that regard, but seeing them shrink because people don't know how to play nice is very sad.

[scribblemoose]

This, very much this. I've noticed a sort of migration from LJ to Twitter by some fandom people; then their twitters are locked, then they realise it's just like chatting in a chat room but less convinient, so they move to gchat. Which is fine, but it's not fandom as I know it (Jim).

[kis]

Wherever you go, you always take the weather? We should probably try fixing what's wrong with the sites we're on, rather than running off to places we imagine will be better but probably won't be.