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: 2009-06-21 11:42 pm (UTC)I AGREE WITH THIS SENTIMENT SO, SO MUCH. I cannot even articulate it but like, okay, I get that you can post a single picture on tumblr, but in what way are we prevented from doing that on LJ?
I mean, okay -- there are a lot of fun little theme-sites -- stuff about Chuck Bass' wardrobe, pictures of various actors -- that have popped up. I guess I just don't understand HOW you can have both. Or rather, how I could have both -- I only have so much to say, I couldn't spread it out between a personal LJ and a personal tumblr. (Also, I can't imagine working with a lack of text comments?)
Anyway yeah, I... agree. I don't want to be fussy, BUT COME BACK TO THE LJ SANDBOX AND PLAY WITH ME :(
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 01:17 am (UTC)I don't know, I don't know. Maybe I'm being too philosophical about this all, but I miss my LJ friends. I really care about the friends I've made here – some of them a lot – and it makes me nervous (sad? annoyed? confused?) that LJ seems to kind of be...disappearing.
I like those theme Tumblrs! I really do enjoy reading people's Tumblrs, I just wish it didn't have to be an either/or situation.
BUT COME BACK TO THE LJ SANDBOX AND PLAY WITH ME :(
PLEASE. WE ARE COOL, AS TUMBLRLESS AS WE ARE.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 02:05 am (UTC)I really care about the friends I've made here – some of them a lot – and it makes me nervous (sad? annoyed? confused?) that LJ seems to kind of be...disappearing.
I GO BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN WORRYING ABOUT THIS AND... not. On the one hand there are people I will always have, and LJ is necessary for a lot of things and it's not like it's... everyone... yet? BUT ON THE OTHER, more and more people are... posting less here and more there.
WE ARE COOL, AS TUMBLRLESS AS WE ARE.
EXACTLY.