Social Media Rant Ahoy

[fabulousfrock]

A couple of weeks ago, jessica_shea noted that I'd really pulled back from social media these days, and asked if I was happier and did I miss it? And recently anywherebeyond posted about her social media hiatus and I left a big old comment there...big enough for a blog post

Comments

[robinellen]

Social media is a strange beast. I came to it at an older age, of course, and I think that changes my expectations, perhaps (it's always been a place for me to connect with people in a relaxed way). LJ has become quieter, but I still have contact with 'friends' here, even though it's not as common. I've also noticed that FB has become more popular these days, and I do spend more time there, keeping up with this and that. I'm not a Twitter fan...I think it's just not for me, and although I do try to regularly post about books I love there, that's the only reason I ever go. I honestly don't care for people's 'in the moment' thoughts about random stuff. ;) One good thing Twitter has done, imo, is change FB into a better place. People post most there now, with longer and more thoughtful ideas, and it's become kind of an in-between for LJ and Twitter

[fabulousfrock]

I do enjoy Facebook for some things. I wouldn't want to lose that. But I don't feel like I make new friends at Facebook, I just maintain friends I already have, and friends who don't use Facebook regularly have largely been lost. Of course a lot of the core LJ people are now my core FB people.

Pinterest is great for keeping track of recipes. But I don't know how to "use" it like other people do. It feels SO "busy" being just pictures.

[deva_fagan]

I've had a similar experience, pulling back from social media, and feeling that I had closer relationships with folks on LJ/blog than via fb/twitter. I miss that online connection, but I am not sure what, if anything, I can do about it. I have tried to stay in better touch with my closer online friends via email but it's not quite the same. I sometimes find myself yearning for some sort of closed googlegroup of like-minded writer/reader folks who would actually want to stay in touch more regularly, but I don't even know if I would be able to keep that up. I do really value the friends I have made via the internet, but I wish more of them lived close enough to have over for tea!

[fabulousfrock]

I think it would be nice to have a group like that, but without any pressure to post (just like LJ was). I haven't used Google Groups, how do they work? I've really been thinking about how I could build a community of like-minded folks and so far my ideas are either to make a master list of people who still use Livejournal and make new friends by pulling a community tighter together (because I've noticed, of my friends who do still post, they all have a few friends who still comment that I don't know myself, and maybe there's a way to bring everyone together?) or to find some way of making a new group of people who yearn for the days when social media was more like writing a letter to a group of friends in some other forum, like a mailing list...or maybe a Google group.

I wish everyone just lived close enough for tea, too! I would much rather see people in person. But I'm broke, I can't drive and I live over an hour from a big city, so...I have to figure out something else!

[deva_fagan]

Google groups are basically just email lists, like yahoo groups (but I think the interface is better, in the same way the gmail interface is better-- imo-- than yahoo mail).

It would be cool to set up a sort of online, perpetual writing retreat in some sort of forum. I love places like Verla's blue boards but that's less personal (and much bigger!) than the community I miss from old blog days.

If I have any bright ideas (or get up the gumption to try and put something together) I will let you know! :-)

[olmue]

I really miss the conversations on LJ. FB is okay, but short and quippy, like you said. And I just don't like Twitter and don't get Tumblr. Since I move so often, I really have appreciated the chance to get to know other writers and converse outside of real time (because face it, my time zone isn't always convenient). But now that that seems to be dying away and being replaced by quick cat posts, I'm sad. Especially since it looks like I'll be moving again and have to start the whole real life thing all over again.

[fabulousfrock]

Yes, I suppose it's harder on those of us who have recently moved, or who have to move a lot. My real life is quite nice but I don't have a single person I can go out to lunch with and I'm not sure how to find them. Everything sort of social I can find is mostly attended by people 20 and 30 years older than me.

[fabulousfrock]

Well, the dispersal thing is certainly true, although before blogging took off my friends were pretty dispersed...I had some friends in chat rooms, some on mailing lists, some on message boards...but they were all more intimate, conversational mediums than what we have nowadays. I guess LJ was just the golden age.

And I feel you on the time thing. I am mostly free for social media on weekends, because I just seem to naturally fall into the habit of seeing Monday as the start of a new work week (which is odd, since I've never had a real job that followed that schedule) and that I need to start off the week working, run errands, etc., and then have more free time on the weekend.

[sheela_chari]

I also miss the old LJ community. I have lamented about it before. I don't know the solution really - things have changed in my life for sure, and I don't have much time to give to blogging anymore. One thing I can say for certain, i couldn't have published my first book w/o LJ. it was enormous help - the support, the information, the handholding through all my disappointments. when i got my book deal - it was so great to announce it here, to share that with the friends i'd made here

[fabulousfrock]

I do feel like, for the most part, the people who were there for each other back in the best of the blogging years are still there for each other, even if we don't talk as much. You, and all the people who commented here, are certainly in that group. And of course I haven't had much time either. I keep intending to blog more but life just gets in the way.

I would like to have more real-life interaction, but I'm not sure where to find the people. The closest writer I know is 40 miles away. I thought it would be great to live closer to the DC writers, but I can't get over there that often and it's actually just made me feel more left out than ever because I'm technically close enough to go to stuff, but I really can't, and I'll never really be in the circle because I'm not THAT close.