I guess I should have foreseen that as soon as I start making noises about stopping this blog: two comments show up and I come down with guilt feelings. It's just that I see a kind of sea change happening right now. I think blogs are becoming "So 2004" and that everyone is moving into more social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Maybe it's that Facebook requires so much less mental effort.
If I want to share a link in Facebook, I simply go to the Share Link tab, paste in the link with a short comment, and it's done. With the blog, posting a link requires a writeup. What does it mean to you? Why is it relevant? I'm sure you've seen plenty of blogs where the author posts an entry titled "Quoted without comment" and the body is nothing but a URL. How many times do you click on the link? If you're like me, hardly ever at all.
But in Facebook, there's usually a thumbnail sized photo next to the link, which helps explain a little about what the link refers to. A notice announcing that you've posted a link appears on the "Wall," or newsfeed, of all the people who've made you their "friend." I have over 100 FB friends, which is a darn sight more than the number of clicks this blog generates daily.
Facebook is such a rich environment with millions of people, and everything is designed to generate more links and clicks between people. Carol left a comment that I had helped her find liberal blogs in Texas. Glad to help, Carol! But during the Presidential campaign, I was tons more active on Facebook. Obama has a FB presence, and I used my FB profile to link campaign videos and other information. In the final couple of weeks I even changed my photo to be a logo from the Obama website. Most of my online activism was in FB and my space on the Obama website.
Again, I am begnning to feel that blogs are over and that social networks are where everyone's going to be going. LiveJournal, one of the earliest blogging sites, says that they are shrinking. The software that powers blogs will live on in a thousand corporate and commercial sites, such as Digg and every major media outlet from CNN to Hulu to the New York Times. But the people behind the individual blog posts are moving to social media.
Would you ever use a social networking site like Facebook? Please leave a comment. How about if I were to start posting RGV food reviews there? I have a good one I've been cooking up on Ms. G's, the daughter of the legendary Mrs. G, founder of El Pato.
22 December 2008
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3 comments:
Don't feel guilty on my account. I am not on the cutting edge of anything high tech or modern. As for the political stuff, I live in a very liberal state and there was no shortage of opportunities for me to be exposed to pro Obama sources of information. (I know people who voted for McCain...just not many of them. ) It was the chance to read Texans writing/thinking liberal in the blogs that I particularly enjoyed. BTW, I asked my children whether old people (i.e. me) could use Facebook. My son said that he had heard on NPR that more older people were using it. My daughter said I couldn't "friend" her. And I thought we had no secrets. Haha.
Carol
Facebook's operating metaphors vaguely remind me of Down Under in A Boy and His Dog. When I want to follow what somebody has to say I either subscribe to an email version of his/her opinion column (e.g., Freeman) or RSS to a blog. If I want to converse I seem to prefer email. Personal taste, I guess.
facebook sucks. I miss your blog posts. facebook posts are transient, blog posts hang around.
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