i hate tagging these kinds of entries
Jun. 19th, 2009 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elapsesA little over a month ago, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
whalelines linked me to this article, entitled "The Benefits of Distraction and Overstimulation". It is about things that are brought up all the time: how the internet/your cell phone/today's world has changed your brain chemistry. It's a really good article -- Anderson's writing is very engaging -- that feels like a pun but it also doesn't and for the record it isn't -- (this sentence is starting to feel like the grammatical equivalent of cultural ADHD) (oh god I'm making it worse), but the first time I was reading it I had to get up in the middle of it because this article, and everything like it, are talking about me. There are a hundred fifty-year-old psychologists/researchers writing up books, articles, studies, and blog posts about why every so often I will realize I've lost an hour watching videos of four-year-old gymnasts for the last five minutes.
BUT DON'T WORRY I'M NOT GOING TO GET ALL DEEP AND PHILOSOPHICAL ABOUT THIS TONIGHT, this is totally about the internet.
Anyway I was reminded of the article because tonight I was thinking like those people. BECAUSE LJ IS SLOW. You guys have totally noticed too, I've seen it mentioned more than once while flisting, and the uprise in the number of tumblr users in the last couple of weeks seems... like an obvious scapegoat? Which then incites a curmudgeony reaction in me, because that is... the person I am. ("WHY IS MICROBLOGGING ALL THE RAGE? Maybe I don't want to post short things! I LIKE A LOT OF WORDS"). WHICH IS SUPER HYPOCRITICAL, because like... I do have twitter. I hate the stupid character limit (200 IS A MUCH MORE REASONABLE NUMBER) but I have it, and I've probably had it longer than most of you (according to that one website that tells you when you signed up: 2 years. WEIRD.)
The thing is that twitter -- and, from what I understand, tumblr -- is kind of a double-edged sword. You can post your thoughts/that hilarious youtube vid/the .gif your friend linked you to without having to write a lot of words of explanation like you would if you were posting it here. What you end up with is a conglomerate of half-thoughts, some of which, in a pre-microblogging world, would have gotten posted on your LJ, and some of which would have gotten lost in the ether of your memory. We all get more out, but the result is: less posting here. And it's not that this new way of interacting is really a threat to our old way of interacting: I think everyone loves this site for the same reasons I do -- the wordiness, the fic, and those really really lovely long thready conversations you can get into.
BUT ME BEING ME, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. How you flip between/utilize the three (or two, or if you still only use LJ, why you still only use LJ), how they've changed your ~internet experience~, HOW YOU FEEL. Pleaaaase? Also I have a poll for my own nefarious curiosity/statistical purposes:
[Poll #1417966]
whalelines linked me to this article, entitled "The Benefits of Distraction and Overstimulation". It is about things that are brought up all the time: how the internet/your cell phone/today's world has changed your brain chemistry. It's a really good article -- Anderson's writing is very engaging -- that feels like a pun but it also doesn't and for the record it isn't -- (this sentence is starting to feel like the grammatical equivalent of cultural ADHD) (oh god I'm making it worse), but the first time I was reading it I had to get up in the middle of it because this article, and everything like it, are talking about me. There are a hundred fifty-year-old psychologists/researchers writing up books, articles, studies, and blog posts about why every so often I will realize I've lost an hour watching videos of four-year-old gymnasts for the last five minutes. BUT DON'T WORRY I'M NOT GOING TO GET ALL DEEP AND PHILOSOPHICAL ABOUT THIS TONIGHT, this is totally about the internet.
Anyway I was reminded of the article because tonight I was thinking like those people. BECAUSE LJ IS SLOW. You guys have totally noticed too, I've seen it mentioned more than once while flisting, and the uprise in the number of tumblr users in the last couple of weeks seems... like an obvious scapegoat? Which then incites a curmudgeony reaction in me, because that is... the person I am. ("WHY IS MICROBLOGGING ALL THE RAGE? Maybe I don't want to post short things! I LIKE A LOT OF WORDS"). WHICH IS SUPER HYPOCRITICAL, because like... I do have twitter. I hate the stupid character limit (200 IS A MUCH MORE REASONABLE NUMBER) but I have it, and I've probably had it longer than most of you (according to that one website that tells you when you signed up: 2 years. WEIRD.)
The thing is that twitter -- and, from what I understand, tumblr -- is kind of a double-edged sword. You can post your thoughts/that hilarious youtube vid/the .gif your friend linked you to without having to write a lot of words of explanation like you would if you were posting it here. What you end up with is a conglomerate of half-thoughts, some of which, in a pre-microblogging world, would have gotten posted on your LJ, and some of which would have gotten lost in the ether of your memory. We all get more out, but the result is: less posting here. And it's not that this new way of interacting is really a threat to our old way of interacting: I think everyone loves this site for the same reasons I do -- the wordiness, the fic, and those really really lovely long thready conversations you can get into.
BUT ME BEING ME, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. How you flip between/utilize the three (or two, or if you still only use LJ, why you still only use LJ), how they've changed your ~internet experience~, HOW YOU FEEL. Pleaaaase? Also I have a poll for my own nefarious curiosity/statistical purposes:
[Poll #1417966]
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 03:54 pm (UTC)I'm not worried about LJ though. There are some things (fic, fanmixes, etc) that can't really be posted elsewhere, or that I think a lot of people think of as LJ things, so I think it'll be ok. People still have specific reasons to come back here, and every once in a while everyone gets the urge to make long, rambly posts about tv shows....right? AND THEN THERE ARE POLLS, MY FAVOURITE OF FAVOURITE THINGS. So I hope LJ is safe, because I like it, even if internet activities and types of posts get siphoned into particular internet mediums (random comments/links for twitter, fic/polls/mixes/rambly thoughts for LJ, who knows what for tumblr, etc.).
no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 11:55 pm (UTC)Actually, selfishness is really what it's all about, isn't it? I know LJ itself isn't going anywhere for the reasons you cited, buuuuuuut sometimes it feels like people are? And that is what makes me cranky.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 12:43 am (UTC)There should be a website to help you with that. Did your friends have any details? Are Erica and Ethan still together? Wait, let me just answer that with a yes, they have to be.
I hope we can have our conversation sooooon!