Most of my facebook contacts and all of my Blogger contacts are great people from our Y360 days - and they are also great writers. These days, a blog will trickle in once in a while… a precious rarity in what was a wealth of prolific creativity. Journals, poems, rants, humor, everyday occurrences from the absurd to the sublime; from the profound to the profane… it was wonderful. I am just as guilty. Even during the busiest of times, I would post at least once a week. Now I go for weeks with nothing to say (well, nothing I am willing to commit to posting). What happened? I have a theory.
Email killed letter writing. Texting killed grammar, vocabulary, and spelling skills. Now facebook has killed blogging. It is an easy distraction from real writing. What used to be a crafted piece of work has been reduced to “Thom is…” then fill in the blank. Quick comments (except for Rob : )), silly quizzes, planting gardens, poking, super poking, sucking lollipops… etc, etc, etc. I am not saying that I don’t enjoy it. I certainly participate in it. But the time I spend doing this would be better spent writing again. Again, I have a theory about why we do this.
Many of us started out on a social networking site (Y360) that, at the center, was the blog. Said social networking site went belly up. We scattered to the four cyber winds. Some continued writing on other sites, like Multiply, Blogger, My(wasted)Space, created independent blogs, or are stubbornly holding out hope that Y360 will rise from the ashes like a virtual phoenix (don’t hold your breath). But we were never able to recreate what we had on Y360. Recently, one by one, we rediscovered each other on facebook – and I am very happy about that. Many of us also pulled in people from our past who we thought were lost to time. Wonderful! I have very happily reconnected with people I never thought I would encounter again. It is obvious that we are social creatures and we love the contact, we love to see what is happening in each other’s lives, or just have something as basic as a gauge on a friend’s mood – we were jonesing and we found our social networking fix.
But what of the real writing? We text, we Twitter, and we allow facebook to eat our blogging time. Facebook is like cocaine – you do a line, you feel good, then you do another and another and another and before you know it you are up half the night thinking something really cool has happened. I used to compose and record music this way… the next day, I would listen to what I did and it was usually pure crap.
I am glad that we have all reconnected. I thoroughly enjoy the interaction, the jokes, the flirtation, and yes, even the lollipop sucking.
But I really miss reading your wonderful blogs.
Email killed letter writing. Texting killed grammar, vocabulary, and spelling skills. Now facebook has killed blogging. It is an easy distraction from real writing. What used to be a crafted piece of work has been reduced to “Thom is…” then fill in the blank. Quick comments (except for Rob : )), silly quizzes, planting gardens, poking, super poking, sucking lollipops… etc, etc, etc. I am not saying that I don’t enjoy it. I certainly participate in it. But the time I spend doing this would be better spent writing again. Again, I have a theory about why we do this.
Many of us started out on a social networking site (Y360) that, at the center, was the blog. Said social networking site went belly up. We scattered to the four cyber winds. Some continued writing on other sites, like Multiply, Blogger, My(wasted)Space, created independent blogs, or are stubbornly holding out hope that Y360 will rise from the ashes like a virtual phoenix (don’t hold your breath). But we were never able to recreate what we had on Y360. Recently, one by one, we rediscovered each other on facebook – and I am very happy about that. Many of us also pulled in people from our past who we thought were lost to time. Wonderful! I have very happily reconnected with people I never thought I would encounter again. It is obvious that we are social creatures and we love the contact, we love to see what is happening in each other’s lives, or just have something as basic as a gauge on a friend’s mood – we were jonesing and we found our social networking fix.
But what of the real writing? We text, we Twitter, and we allow facebook to eat our blogging time. Facebook is like cocaine – you do a line, you feel good, then you do another and another and another and before you know it you are up half the night thinking something really cool has happened. I used to compose and record music this way… the next day, I would listen to what I did and it was usually pure crap.
I am glad that we have all reconnected. I thoroughly enjoy the interaction, the jokes, the flirtation, and yes, even the lollipop sucking.
But I really miss reading your wonderful blogs.
6 comments:
Amen, Thom. Yes, I spend time on Facebook, but it just seems so empty. Shoot, even that meat market known as My Space has a blog feature! But, I too have let my blog slide, even with all the free time I have now. I guess 360 really was something special, with its combination of social networking and blogging. But I guess now we've come to the point where, if you can't express yourself in 180 characters or less, no one has time for you. Sigh.
I'm a total minimalist on Facebook. I originally started using it YEARS ago. And by 'years' I mean like 5 years ago, back when it was a new site only for college students (you had to have a .edu email address to sign up).
I avoid most apps like the plague and pretty much use it for only the tiniest of reasons.
I'm all about twitter, and have also taken to using Tumblr (a great aggregator for content), but am still happily blogging away in my own little corner.
Postulations and reasoning abound as to why blogging has slowed to a crawl. Blogs are few and far between. I know I've written relatively few in the past number of months. Do I chalk this up to ennui? Depression? Boredom?
Most often, I think it is because I have a desire to see my writing driven by joy and optimism. Whereas, my daily struggles seem to interfere.
I don't want to write about the economy (it sucks) or work (it is just a job) or having to give up things I love because of physical deterioration (it REALLY sucks).
So I find myself in a state of vegetation after a long day at work, barely capable of putting together the 180 characters in a Facebook update.
Some day, some day soon, I hope to write again in the way I know I can write. I wish the same for each and every one of you who considers themselves a blogger.
I have found that I like posting my entries in on my facebook page - so I can share the blog with my social page. That has kept me interested in both . . .
Well that and I'm hot . . .:)
What exactly are you trying to say... blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah... I mean really?! ;-)
Like David said, "I find myself in a state of vegetation", much like The Garden State, but different. ;-) I mean, I still have joys in life, but, I just get bogged down by everything else... Also, I'm so detail oriented, so when I really do sit and write something, I know it'll take me forever before I finish. It's turned into quite the cycle...
It's funny, when I started on 360, I barely knew anything about the internet at all, I was so scared I would f'up the computer... Also, all these new experiences were happening in my life and I was really happy... Oh well, such is life... I'm still happy but it's just different.
Anyway, yeah, I do really hope to get myself writing again. I haven't written in my journal in forever... You know the kind where you use a pen/pencil & paper? I used to keep a journal all the time, with random thoughts, poems, sketches, etc...
Maybe one of these days... :-)
I'm on FB, & I don't get the hype. Some people I know are completely obsessed, & I have no idea why. Oh well.
One of these days I'll get around to writing...I promise.
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