Saturday, July 05, 2008

Anti-Social

On June 25, I was criticized for not being on Facebook. So the next day I joined. And then the next day, I opened a FriendFeed account. And now I've got people pestering me to be on Plurk.

Enough already.

Initially, Facebook filled me with Third Grade anxieties -- "What if so-and-so won't be my friend?" Then came the Ninth Grade anxieties -- "Should I join groups? Are groups un-cool? What about flair? Is that cool? I don't want to be un-cool." Then it just settled down into lots of invitations to play games. I suck at Scramble. I hold my own at WordTwist. I dominate at Sudoku.

I have a blog because it was the easiest way to create a web-presence, and occasionally I do have something I want to say. I have LibraryThing and Ravelry because I like to keep track of what I read and knit. That seems to be about it.

So I'm instituting a new rule: no more social networking applications without a clear purpose and direct relevance to my life -- my first life, and its relevant on-line tools and extensions. I have no need to create a Second Life.
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5 comments:

  1. Mel10:27 AM

    Well, I'd challenge you to a game of Scrabulous, but I'm three weeks behind on the ones I have going already.

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  2. FiberQat11:14 AM

    I'd be on the social networks on the computer but I'm too busy being social in real life.

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  3. knittingbrow3:03 PM

    I hear ya!

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  4. Matt.......3:05 PM

    here-here.....

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  5. Cat Herself6:58 AM

    Didn't you rant about this once before? Someone I know did . . . and I have to agree with you. I was thinking the same thing the other day when I realized that I have "mini-feed" potential at Facebook. twitter and plurk . . . I think I'm going to nix plurk because there are suddenly 20 people who want to be my friend that I've never heard of before.

    What I hate is when someone who is a real-life friend starts blogging on a service where others can't read their blog unless they subscribe. It hasn't happened in a while, but it sucks.

    Oh yea, and that WORK people are all about innovation and trying new things, and I like new things (especially if they're gadgetty or sparkly) so I try them (and, like you, I want to be cool), but then it's so hard to stop and abandon something and keeping track of it all takes time away from KNITTING!

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