On On-Line Social Networking

[mlerules]

I've been ruminating on the purposes and goals of on-line social networking recently as I've been wandering around in FaceBook these past few days. I have some thoughts that'll likely spill/spew forth here before long. This pretty well sums up what I do NOT care for about it.

Why do YOU use FaceBook and/or LJ and/or MySpace and/or whatEVER? What goals do you have in using it/whatEVER (if any)? What needs do you hope to fulfill/have fulfilled? What do you want to, hope to, and actually GET out of it? What's it FOR, in your opinion? (And what's IT?) I'm curious and'd really like to know, as it might help shed some light on these issues for myself. (And because generating and engaging in at least some slightly more in-depth discussion/conversation is something I value and prefer LJ for over FB, at least so far.)

Comments

[stacymckenna.livejournal.com]

twistedcat and I discussed just this today while on our walk.

Someone told her to think of Twitter as a river - you get in and hang out for a while and then get out again. Any water that passes while you're gone, oh well. She can cope with that and be happy with it.

I can not. I need the kiosk where people leave their posters and notes about what they've been doing. I need the answering machine that records messages, not just how many calls I missed. I want to be able to sit down for 2 hours a day and catch up on everyone. FB and Twitter require that I be plugged in ALL THE TIME to know what's going on with folk (for the most part). This exact issue is one of the biggies about why I will NEVER play an MMORPG - anything that happens in Real Time requires being ON to not miss anything. I can't handle it. My compulsiveness kicks in. It's not healthy. So, I have Facebook for those who really want to reach me and are only/primarily there (because it'll email me discretely for those things), and then LJ for knowing what's going on with folk.

My new gardening website is designed largely like Facebook and it's been interesting watching myself learn to cope with what to keep up on and what to ignore.

[mlerules.livejournal.com]

Yeah - the constant check or you'll miss it sorta sux. Turning off most applications and opting out of ALL games, quizzes, gift-giving/receiving, and the like has made it a lot easier for me to handle. There's a notification thingie down on the lower left that'll show me everything I've missed since I last looked, but that's not new stuff that people post, but just new stuff they've added to stuff I've done (I think). Still trying to figure it out w/out it being too much of a time-suck. Good to know when to back off b'c of compulsiveness!

Do tell if'n you learn any general tricks/strategies through your gardening website. (Specifics not so useful, but things like "turn off all quizzes" or an equivalent would be helpful.)

Thx for your thoughts on this. See you in a week and a day!

[stacymckenna.livejournal.com]

So far with the gardening site I've learned I'm best if I just check "recent forum posts' and avoid looking at everyone's status updates, etc. Sadly, being in beta, their group activity isn't notifying yet even when one is subscribed, so reading the "recent activity" list (which includes everything) is the easiest way to see if anyone's commented there, as they're a different thing than forum posts. So, right now, it's a training of will...