What kind of online presence do I want to have?

[darkemeralds]

I've been in a bit of a blog-crisis for the last several months. Is this happening for others?

I'm getting my fandom fix mostly from Tumblr and Twitter; most of my clothes-and-style stuff ends up on Pinterest; and my little everyday illustrated posts start on my phone and end up automagically on Google+.

What's more, it's incredibly easy to share links on those platforms. They're more mobile-friendly. They're more there when I'm out and about.

As a consequence, some of the emotional needs I've fulfilled for years here on LJ/DW are being spread out over several platforms.

But! But...

But I just don't feel a sense of community in those places. Tumblr is a read-only experience for me (and when I say "read only" I mean "look at the pretty pictures of Tyler Hoechlin," mostly) where the local population seems to have an average age of about 18. I'm frankly terrified to post. It's insane.

Google Plus is gorgeous. It has every level of privacy control you could want. It has Hangouts. It has Ripples. It has all the power of Google behind it. But so far, I haven't managed to make it feel like a community. And I can't find that it's fannish at all. (If you know differently, tell me.)

So I'm neither here nor there, and it's causing me to have no consistent online presence at all.

All of which is a long way of saying that I'm still around, and sorry for not being around here more, and a bit bewildered.

Comments

Re: +1

[lamentables]

The nym wars did put me off, but I'm leary of all the data mining too.

That's compounded by the bubble effect if you use Google as a search engine. I switched to DuckDuckGo some time ago, but every now and again have cause to compare and am disturbed by the difference in results.

And finally, there was the news - I don't know if it's something that is actually going ahead - that they were going to start including one's own gmails in any google search. What could possibly go wrong there...

Re: +1

[darkemeralds]

Yeah, I saw that development. And in fact I opted in. I'm reasonably confident that nobody else can search my gmail, but then, as said above, I'm kind of a Google fangirl.

It's quite possible that I've been over-persuaded by the arguments Jeff Jarvis makes in Public Parts and will regret my decision not to care about my personal privacy (or rather, to redefine it radically). Meanwhile, though, I'm finding it interesting to explore a more public presence online. It could be an age thing. Big Brother loses interest in people over 50. Especially women.

Re: +1

[lamentables]

Part of my wariness is about the concepts, rather than the specifics of my own security or privacy. That said, I know various clients have done google searches on me, and I feel pretty strongly that they shouldn't be finding information that I would be reluctant share in person, and I emphatically do not want them reading any pr0n that I may or may not have written.

Re: +1

[darkemeralds]

It really is down to the pr0n that one may or may not have written--at least, it is for me. That, i can relate to completely.