After writing "Too Many Friends" and then thinking about it before I re-wrote it and posted it, I realized that there was one very important aspect that I have failed to cover: the blog. The blog is everything that a social media site is not.
A blog is something that an individual authors and caretakes. It is something that someone has to seek out intentionally - via an actual search or even just a click through - instead of something that is force fed when an individual logs on.
A blog is also something that someone has to take the time to respond to - not just with a click and "thumbs up" sign or a small comment but an actual response to an actual posting. A sharing of opinions can take place between the author and the readers or even between the readers and the reader - but these are interactions, not 10 second dashed out responses.
A blog is something that author actively participates in the maintenance of, even if it is only once a week or once a month. Everything that appears in any blog has been hand selected by the author, not merely moved from one other feed to their own. In some actual way, it is the expression of the blogger in question.
A final thing: a blog can become a mechanism of friendship. We proudly have a cast of tens here (instead of the much overused "cast of thousands") that frequently or infrequently post. Through these posts - really your posts, no third person needed - I get to see a little bit into the soul of the commenter (you). The exchanges are often short - a post, and a response - but even in these short comments over the years, I have come to know more about some of you than of the many I know on social media where I know is the activities they do and the pictures they post.
As always of course, thank you - thank you for your readership, thank you for comments, thank you for your patronage (not that there are any bills we are paying here of course - but if there were, you would be doing it). Most importantly, thank you for being the InterWeb Social Media counterrevolution.
We are few, but we are mighty.
I am so glad I never got exposed or addicted to Facebook or Twitter. I like your blog because I like your clarity of thought. You try to do good things here - whereas that is a low priority on many social media platforms. It's a pleasure to stumble in here, decompress... and focus on whatever is the subject of the day.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work. :)
I don't even remember how I found your blog. I would say maybe through Way Up North; but then I don't remember how I found that one.
ReplyDeleteJust glad I did. :)
Thanks Glen! Honestly, I am on the recovery end of Facebook at this point and if were not for family and Iai, I probably would no longer be on it. I never found Twitter to be useful; 140 characters is not enough to express anything.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the kind words. I hope it is doing some good. And equally thankful that I can help you decompress. If it is any indication, my mind actually works like I blog: a spattering of ideas without any real relationship to each other.
It is funny, is it not Linda? I probably could not tell you in turn how I found most of the blogs I follow now either. I suspect it seven degrees of separation and at some point, we all run back to one single blog reference.
ReplyDeleteA number of years ago someone told me blogging was on its way out because now we had social medial. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt always seemed to me that a blog is more like writing a journal and social media is like having a conversation. Both are forms of communication, but different. A conversation is generally spontaneous and often superficial, but a journal is deliberate and thoughtful. A conversation is quickly executed, but a journal entry takes time. We expect a conversation to be gossipy, but expect a journal to have some substance. A conversation is soon forgotten, but a journal is a record for all time.
I suppose which one prefers depends somewhat on personality.
Leigh, I have read those things as well and in one sense, I suspect it is true: those who in the past would have written a blog because that was what was available have moved to social media because it is a great deal less intensive to maintain.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is a very interesting comparison - in fact, in a lot of ways my blog functions as my other journal (yes, I have a hard copy one as well).
The only complaint I have is that the conversations are so un-uplifting, for the most part.