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lupestripe) wrote2011-07-21 06:29 pm
To Forgotten Friends
In the world of social networking, the word 'friend' is often overused. Words like followers or acquaintances often seem more apt although I prefer to think of social networking as a means of keeping in touch with old friends and making new ones. I guess everyone's relationship with such sites varies dependent on their own personal motivations though.
In recent years, many of my friends have drifted away, largely from LJ to Twitter. The world of social networking appears to be a harsh one as if you are not where your peers are, you can quickly become isolated.
As you are no doubt aware, I am on Twitter. Not grudgingly either - I quite like it. Yet there is a further point to be made - how we use social networks. I imagine Twitter works for many people because it's concise and the conversations are almost instantaneous. I imagine these reasons, more than most, are behind the diaspora away from LJ and towards micro blogging (ignoring the Russian situation of course). However I do not have the time to indulge in such conversations - by day I am at work and by night I often need to do other things. Furthermore, I spend my working day sat in front of a computer on IMs and so coming home to something similar often feels like more work.
This means I struggle to engage with former friends who have abandoned traditional blogging for new social networks. Blogging works for me because I can pick it up and put it down as and when I like. Twitter, meanwhile, is far more impatient and I simply do not have the time or energy to devote to it. Sadly this is where everyone appears to be so again this results in a feeling of isolation.
Of course some would question whether people are true friends if social networking is your only contact with them. They may also question why people didn't try and be friends through other means. This is a fair point but with the concerns regarding Google + being aired today, it is clear that this shift from one forum to another is a concern not confined to myself. Added to this the increasing localization of furry groups and it is clear many people have simply drifted away.
Of course I would love to speak to some old friends but the feeling is that I have been forgotten. Furthermore, I get a sense that they are not too bothered speaking anyway. Thankfully I have some excellent friends in my own locality - as well as around the world - and I feel very fortunate. But I would still like to be closer to some who have sadly slipped away.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
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For instance, every now and then someone will mention me in a "follow friday", and then I'll get a bunch of random people I don't know following me, and usually, most of the new followers never actually start conversations with me. Out of the almost 300 people I'm following and being followed by, I don't even know who half of them are, and of the half I do know who they are, maybe 10% of them are people who I consider actual "friends" in the real sense of the word.
I kinda wish Twitter will adopt the circles concept that G+ has. It's a pain to work with lists in Twitter.
I do miss LJ sometimes, but due to the nature of my job, it's hard to find time to type out meaningful posts, and I tend to also fall behind in readong the posts of others. Also, would be nice if LJ would make a decent full-featured android app. The current app is very limited, and buggy, and since my internet acces is almost exclusively through a mobile phone, LJ is a pain to work with in a mobile browser.
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I am lucky with LJ as I have to use the bus to get to work. This 25 minutes of dead time each way means I can update my journal through the iPhone app. It's actually quite convenient. I do the same with Twitter but the way the site works, it's very difficult to keep up.