Friday, May 24, 2013

facebook and the dilution of the blogosphere: what does this make you think of?

custom space odyssey vans - by sabin
it may have seemed like i forgot about posting a response to your post about crafting and the urge to share, but i hadn't. i've been carrying it with me, mulling it over for weeks. i think that urge to share, especially on my blog, used to be stronger. nearly an uncontrollable need. i fear that facebook has diluted that. i can share something interesting there quickly and with less fuss than opening a new blog post, uploading a photo, setting a link. facebook is the easy route and i choose it far too often. i think facebook, twitter, instagram and pinterest have significantly changed the face of blogging. these days, there are far fewer comments on blog posts and fewer blog posts in general. many of the bloggers i used to follow seem to have quit blogging altogether. but they haven't stopped sharing - we're still interacting on facebook, instagram and twitter. and facebook dilutes even those, because i'll admit that i mostly favorite instagram photos when i see them on facebook, not on actual instagram. now that facebook owns instagram, i imagine they'll integrate it so a like on facebook equals a heart on instagram, but as far as i can see, they're not there yet.

i don't know what impact google+ will eventually have. i think their recent redesign is a good step and i'd love it if it came to replace facebook (mostly because i have the feeling that google is less evil than zuckerberg). that might be wishful thinking on both counts. i find that if i actually want to be able to find a link to something interesting again, i still blog it or put it up on g+ rather than on FB, with their endless redesigns and rejigging of how you can see content and their lack of searchability within one's own timeline. sharing on facebook is like dumping something into a black hole - you may never see it again.

all of this said, i think that still, when i have something really awesome that i (or sabin) made, i still want to share it on my blog. that desire is strong - to preserve it there, even if just for myself and the sake of my own memory, but also to share it with those who read/look. strangely it still seems like there are plenty of readers, but they seldom comment anymore. i'm guilty of the same. i'd say that's a product of us all reading via flipboard or feedly or whatever app on our various devices. i know that the thought of writing out a comment on my iPhone or iPad screen stops me many times from leaving anything of substance, so often i don't comment at all.

it's interesting to see how and where this is all evolving. and how technologies take us places we had never imagined.


4 comments:

kristina said...

this is very interesting, especially about how people have stopped blogging but not stopped sharing and interacting. definitely food for thought!

Molly said...

Facebook is like my daily diary - related to the day to day - and my blog is like my journal - for keepsakes.
And while I enjoy lots of facebook interaction, I don't miss not getting lots of comments on the blog.
I think there's a space for both. I'm totally over twitter for social interaction though - good for news hounding and that's about it for me!

julochka said...

kristina - i'd almost say we're sharing even more than before!

molly - i agree with you about twitter, i tweet my blog posts, but i do it from my blog, i rarely ever GO to actual twitter. i do if there's something fun i want to follow (Eurovision song contest comes to mind), but many of my blog readers come in from there - they often tweet me a comment instead of commenting on the actual blog. but, like you, i don't really mind not getting blog comments. it's always been about my sanity and my own memory more than anything. :-)

Zuzana said...

Great post! My sentiments exactly.;) I am officially on a blog break and am one of those bloggers you mention; I post less and blog less. But that is due to the change in my personal life - I guess I live more off line, than on line these days.;)
But I do still visit FB regularly (that is were I saw this post;).
However, I will never completely stop blogging, only adjust the productivity to fit my own life. With that said though, I feel definitely that most of my blog friends also blog less or have disappeared all together. As a result, my own blog gets much less comments that it used to and I feel definitely that blogging has lost its universal allure and has passed its popularity peak. Sadly. As I am with you on the fact that quality writing and conveying of deeper thoughts is best done by a blog post.;)
Have a great weekend dear Julie.;)
xoxo