Sunday, July 04, 2010

social media schmedia

I split up with Facebook a while ago but I've been thinking about getting back together with the fickle wench. Although, quite frankly, I'm not really sure I need her in my life.

It's been more than a month since I've been on there and I haven't honestly missed it that much. There are certainly people I'd like to keep in touch with more but I'm not sure that 'liking' someone's posts or leaving random one-line comments is the same as meaningful communication.

Of course I haven't been actually doing anything more meaningful (i.e. writing/talking/emailing) - but the intention is there.. As always.

I also wonder whether anyone has noticed I'm not posting/commenting any more? Probably not: the scatter-shot and mass-broadcast nature of the medium means that if you've got 100+ friends updating and posting regularly it's hard to see when one of them stops. My email volume certainly hasn't picked up.

Blogging has become more appealing lately: I don't know if I've actually got more to say or I just seem to have a need to be more long-winded about it*. I'm also liking twitter - but more from a consumer standpoint, I don't use it much to talk to people.

Facebook just seems kinda.. prescriptive. Standardised for commonality. Which is fine but I feel like it lacks nuance, and I'm all about the subtleties of communication. Or at least like to think I am.

ANYway. All that said I'll probably be back on the facespace soon. Like junk food it's easy and quick and comforting and as long as you don't overdo it your legs won't drop off from gangrene**.


* Rhetorical.
** yes, I know, that analogy lost some traction at the end..

4 comments:

Jen said...

this format makes my face hurt. I liked the books better.

How's that for meaningful communication?

fishboy said...

Well stop mashing your face into the monitor, doofus ;p

Anonymous said...

Facebook is for dunderheads. That said, I do drop in once in a while. I catch up on my in-laws that way. My own (adult) children won't let me friend them.

You Don't Know Me

fishboy said...

Meh. Facebook's just a tool - and there are people who just can't use some tools effectively. Or enjoyably. Fortunately there are plenty of other options for the social-media inclined.

The only problem is that nearly everyone appears to be using Facebook at the moment - but that's bound to change eventually. Everyone was on Myspace (remember that? Me neither..) a few years ago.