So, thinking of going No Facebook. It sounds pissy, but I often feel like I’m speaking to an empty room when I share stuff on there. I think it’s because of the new format where, to see posted links to videos/websites/whatever, you have to be receiving the much-hated, newer “News” feed (that most people have turned off in favor of the “Status” feed). In turn, when I post links to videos/websites/whatever, I never hear back from anyone about their opinions regarding them. Perhaps people just don’t care about the videos. But I would think that with 100+ “friends,” (and I use the quotations because I’ve got people on there who I have not spoken with in a long time who, quite frankly, should be ‘unfriended,’ but I just hate the idea that that can of worms being opened up so I avoid it), I would think that someone would have something to say. So I’m guessing most people don’t see it.
In re-reading this, I realize how whiny this all sounds. My digital friends don’t want to play with me, boo hoo hoo. Whatever.
The fact is, though, that the whole point of a virtual social network is to exchange ideas and thoughts. When someone shares an opinion on their blog and it is greeted with the chirping of crickets, there’s not really anything to do about it. I mean, I guess you can go be like all the Mommy Bloggers who have the raffles for things and say things like, “Leave comments for me and I’ll pick one of you to get this free thing I’m offering!” But to expect that someone is going to comment on something just because you wrote it on your own dime-a-dozen freely published forum is silly.
On a social network, though, the whole concept is predicated on the idea that Person A says how much they are looking forward to Movie X and Person B says that Movie X is going to suck because there is no way that it can be as good as the cartoon was when they were a kid and Persons C, D and E all give it a ‘thumbs up’ because they’re just as excited about it. Rinse, lather, repeat.
It’s been a wonderful tool to get in touch with people whom I haven’t seen in years. Without it, I wouldn’t have gone to my fake high school reunion this summer (since I had moved away from the school I should have graduated from and hadn’t seen those guys in almost 20 years). I also keep up with former co-workers and former students through it, which is pretty cool for the most part.
But I just wonder if I really need the incessant patter of who’s watching the football game, who’s pissed off because the government is screwing us yet again (danged Liberals, taking over everything!), and who spent the weekend getting wasted.
I think
Honestly, I don’t know what I think about the whole thing. Do I just have a case of sour grapes because people just don’t seem to want to play with me? Probably. But the fact is, I think there are better ways I could be employing my time lately, anyway. I think I’m going to experiment and see how I do without a few days “in network.”
We’ll see how long I last.
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