join the 21st century and other ramblings

[ftangredi]

That's what people keep on telling me, ignoring the fact that I already have. (I'm here, aren't I?)

But I find it interesting that the communications technology which was supposed to bring everybody closer together is now also tending to divide people up.

A couple of times recently, people here have posted links to photos ... but when I went to look

Comments

[cheezchick]

I agree with you on this. Facebook is more of a gaming site for me at this point, but it's also a good way for me to keep loosely in touch with people I rarely speak to or see.
LJ is more personal for me, but I'm not a paid member, which is why I post pictures to Facebook.
I am a member of CGP only to keep up on scrabble news. I wouldn't say I sneer at it, but I find most of the threads useless. If there's a topic of interest to me, I look, but I'm not terribly interested in one liners related to the appearance of a mysterious steel box at Burger King while GCP member was thinking of an obscure 5.

AGREED...

[meldeiry]

People have emotional needs to connect or to put up walls, and that's what we do. Whether it's thru the internet or in the hallways, that's what we do.

I just wish I was better at breaking down my own walls and connecting with my people. Or that I understood better who my people were.

Sigh...

And now I'm agreeing with Frank. Maybe I'm getting old... ;0

Re: AGREED...

[ftangredi]

I may be older, but I have more hair....

Re: AGREED...

[meldeiry]

You bastard!!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6081474&id=877280566

As you can see here, I have plenty of hair. Or did...

Oh wait, you probably can't see this, as it's on FACEBOOK!

[spherulitic]

We'll always be human.

Facebook can take up as much or as little of your consciousness as you let it, but it is a very effective way to stay minimally in touch with a wide range of people.

I think Twitter becomes more interesting as more people I know join....

[wisemonkey]

i don't think LJ people sneer at CGP people because LJ is a cooler medium or anything. it's the inane discussions that typically go on there, not "CGP people are dorks." of course, inane discussions occur on LJ as well.

what's the principle behind resisting facebook? is it just to be contrarian, or to defy people who say you "have" to join to get with the program? as a member i will tell you you can definitely still lead a rich and full life without facebook. but if you do join, you don't have to spend time there except for accessing the occasional photo album when you want to. it's like registering for the new york times; you don't have to read it every day, but if someone brings up the latest david brooks column you have the ability to go over there for a gander.

the only reason i joined is to play word games with kate and alyssa.

[ftangredi]

Maybe "principle" was the wrong word. It's more the slippery slope: Every time I join something, something new will come along a few months later that somebody else is going to ask me to join. So where do I stop? I have arbitrarily decided to draw my line at Facebook, unless I hear a compelling reason to join. (The photo thing may become a compelling reason.)

Plus, I'm perverse. I always tend to resist the 'be there or be square' argument. In fact, I'm probably just as much a slave to trends as anyone else in the way I go out of my way to resist them.

And it has nothing to do with being old, CONRAD! I was in eight grade when I had a hissy fit because my aunt bought me a paisley shirt and my partents insisted that I wear it. (I did eventually break down and wear a Nehru shirt to school one day. One of the kids, who stuttered, commented, "Frank's gone m-m-m-m-m-mod.")

Yes, it's true. I was a YOUNG fart.

[wisemonkey]

some others here would know a lot more about this than i do, but it's fascinating what social networking tools end up "sticking" and which don't. part of it is simply about good user interface, but there's also a lot marketing, timing and luck involved.

i can understand why you feel networking fatigue if you joined friendster or orkut (flops) and never heard from anyone on it again. for years, facebook was used only by college students, but at some point it tipped and now has 132 million users. here to stay, to say the least.

i've had my LJ for seven years and initially didn't use it for networking at all. i only had a few friends and mostly wrote to myself in it. then a couple years ago dozens of scrabble players joined and became my friend, and suddenly now it's a medium to keep in touch with that crowd. weird.

[evwhore]

+1 to this too :-) I resisted blogging in general for a while and finally caved and got an LJ. I also resisted Facebook for a while and caved there too. I'm not terribly active on Facebook but it's nice to "reconnect" with lots of people from past schools, jobs, etc

[jmallick]

That reminds me - How many other Scrabblers out there have blogs that aren't on lj? I know there are at least a few, and I don't know if anyone here has accounts on both sites. I'm also curious to what other forums some of you guys visit, and if you use the same usernames on those forums. I certainly would have taken part in Frank's WWTBAM web group when the show was in it's prime, which seems so long ago now.

[ataraxy22]

This guy keeps track of all (or many of) the Scrabble blogs:
http://www.badqoph.com/people/?o=s&u=d

(I'm not endorsing his website, but I think it is pretty common knowledge that it is out there.)