A recent tweet from btk got me thinking (I shall quote it here for context):
Seeing as pretty much all ABZ bloggers have stopped blogging we can't have blog-meets anymore. Anyone up for a tweet-up?
Is it true? Is it symptomatic of a wider phenomenon? Is everyone lost in BookFace and Twitter? Maybe it's the fact that every few years something new comes along, everyone goes "ooh" and does that instead. It's been the same in computing as long as I remember.
8 bits gave way to 16 bits which in turn gave way to 32 bits and we're on the cusp of wholesale acceptance of 64 bits.
Atari gave way to Nintendo who had a fight with Sega then Sony came along and shook everything up before Nintendo pulled a sneaky sideways manoeuvre and captured the imagination with something other than more sound, more graphics and more processing power.
Talkers gave way to instant messenger.
The evolution continues even in social networking - Faceparty -> Bebo/MySpace -> Facebook.
Blogging had its day, but it has been swallowed up by the convenience of Twitter and the sheer omnipresence of BookFace? Who knows? There will always be those who prefer the long form of blogging versus the short utterances found on the likes of Twitter. I see merit in them both. Facebook can get lost (imho).
People will use whatever the Zeitgeist is this week. Few lead, many follow and some play in the band until the ship goes down.
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Maybe it's the tweet limit/fragmented conversations that make it look messy... Or the 'Stephen Fry factor'... But I've just never fancied twitter. I killed myself in Bebo because Facebook had replaced it IMHO.
ReplyDeleteAs for blogging - perhaps you're confusing it with social networking i.e. "ABZ bloggers"? Why bother blogging at all? I sense some FB resistance - is blogging your social networking outlet? There are plenty of people who blog out there, but why?
I think a blog comes down to relevance - if it's just about you then maybe only friends will read it and it might not get the prominence alongside the popular outlets (RSS can always make it more in your face though). If it's relevant to strangers then they will find it via google, surely?
Some people are certainly more 'active' on FB with the 'mundanities' listed. I guess it's up to you what level you got too. Face it, some people's lives are more interesting than other - that's probably why I say little. ;)
@bughunthudson: Hey man, how's it going? Long time no speak.
ReplyDeleteI'm not confusing blogging with social networking, the starting point of this item was lamenting the passing of a loose, local network of bloggers held together by an aggregator who would meet IRL for some beers and a laugh. I am suggesting that the various social networking outlets are swallowing up people's time/effort. They can get something on their minds out there while seeing if they've been tagged in any photos or see if they've got some new crops to tend. Why bother with a blog?
I have to say that these days I only write when I get fired up enough to do it, which at the current rate seems to be about once a fortnight.
You detected some FB resistance correctly. A bloated privacy nightmare is about the best I can describe it on the spot. I signed up once and got presented with a frighteningly accurate list of people I might know with only my name and email address for reference information. That rather perturbed me and I suspended it there and then.
I do use twitter (I probably "tweet" as often as I blog). What I like about twitter is that there's no bloat, no stupid games/apps, and it's easily ignored if you're busy but also easy to have a quick flick through, the messages being so small. It's very well suited to mobile devices. If you do see something interesting, you can pick up on it without being poked or otherwise cajoled.
I think I've probably signed up for every social networking/blogging malarkey over the past few years - Friends Reunited, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Twitter and probably various others I've forgotten. But now I only really use Facebook and my blog, with occasional bursts on Twitter. I think it comes down to apathy - I just can't be bothered messing about with these things, and that apathy has now affected my blogging.
ReplyDeleteIt took me ages to get into Twitter, I did the personal FB thing, I agree with how scary it find so many people you may know!
ReplyDeleteI do like Twitter now, for similar reasons to what you said about it's straight forward without too many apps and games like FB has. It's easier to have a conversation there too. I think there are a lot of people blogging in Aberdeen it's just that you may not have found them.
Hope you're enjoying the sunshine.
Jade
@Groanin' Jock: Apathy always gets you in the end, and I don't think it improves with age. Continuing what you were saying about CDs - I bought a CD from Thomas Truax when I went to see him at the Tunnels last week, mostly because he's a good guy, completely unpretentious and happy to have a wee yap after the show and I like supporting him. The CD then sat at home until my wife put it on one day. I used to live for my music, keep my CDs in alphabetical order, maintain a database of them all and now I can't even be bothered to listen to a CD I've bought? What the hell is going on? Where has that particular brand of excitement gone? As a musician (which I suppose I am now), ought that not be worrying?
ReplyDelete@JadeLD: It's weird, I was a slow adopter of Twitter as well, but when I got a smartphone it made more sense to me.
If there are lots of people blogging in Aberdeen then they should all join aberdeen blogs :) Don't get aggravated, get aggregated!
Sunshine's great, but being an indoors 9-5 person I hope it lasts until evening :)