Falling out of love with LJ

[snousle]

Gosh, it's been nearly ten years of writing here on LJ, and for a good while I've considered myself an LJ diehard, but the juice just isn't flowing anymore.

It's a couple of things, one being engagement, the other laziness. G+ seems to have captured me on both fronts. G+ is very action-oriented, it's got my phone buzzing all the time, it gets my fingers flying. And it's easy.

I do like being able to control the layout of photo-heavy posts using html, but posting straight from Picasa to G+ is so quick and straightforward that it's hard to muster up the energy to do anything else.

G+ has many serious annoyances but ultimately what I write and where I write it is not really a conscious decision. Either it spews forth or it doesn't. G+ is where it's spewing right now, warts and all. The annoyances are kind of a big deal, and there are definitely subjects I would write about here but not over there, but still it's not enough to turn the whole ship around again.

The thing that tears me up is that poll I did a while back indicating that nearly all of you would rather read my work here than over there. I can re-post over here but something about that process feels kind of deadening. And it's hard to catch up once I get behind on that. So I've ended up feeling kind of "virtually homeless", so that no venue feels quite right. And I am left wondering if I have put too much time into it in the first place. Am I getting anywhere or just writing the same things over and over with different details? That's how it feels sometimes.

Comments

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Am I getting anywhere or just writing the same things over and over with different details? That's how it feels sometimes.

I tend to think of it as circling back to elaborate the overall picture. That is, your themes (desire, self-knowledge, science, human productivity, etc.) remain broadly the same, but each new detail has the potential to expand my understanding of your worldview.

I tried reading Google+ earlier today, but it just feels like they've carted over most of what I dislike about Facebook (down to the arbitrary and unanticipated changes in what your preferences affect) and added hardly any improvements. One of my friends there was openly wondering whether it was time to return to LJ.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

+1

I'm much of same mind on every point in this post. I really miss being able to look back and see what I was think/do/say/feel/writing a year ago, five years ago, a decade ago. Conceptually I prefer LJ, and I killed my Fecebook account in 2011, but I waste most of my time on G+. The instant gratification is both intoxicating and addictive.


(Image is hyperlink)

With each new Google intrusion (and each time it occurs to me how much data I'm giving Google) I edge a little closer to bringing it all back here and the hell with whoever gets lost in the process. We'll see.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, there might be newer things out there but the concept and approach to LJ still works well.
I think the idea that our impulses are our true thoughts on things is debatable. I also feel that something that takes time to write, rewrite is more likely going to be based on reality and be longer lasting than just some impulse posting in reaction to something that you're suddenly presented with.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

I actually don't do a lot of impulse posting, and there is a lot of rewrite on both media. I can't say I edit any less on G+. It's more a question of which platform provides the motivation to do the hard work.

[pink-halen.livejournal.com]

I would think that Life should provide the motivation and not the tool.

I haven't looked at Google Plus. I don't want to join the evil world of farcebook. I don't tweet. Sadly, everyone terribly enamored with these services.

I will miss you if you stop posting here.
That's all I can tell you.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

There's also the idea of posting spontaneously to G+ and then writing a (weekly or whatever) considered post here.

But on the larger issue, I'm feeling lately that online socialising (if it is that) is kinda toxic to me unless I limit it pretty strictly.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I'm finding that it doesn't really work for me unless combined with face-to-face, even if it's not very frequent. There is so much unnecessary online drama than can be defused with just a few minutes in someone's actual company.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Mostly I don't like how I feel & behave in that context. Hatefulness that really is none of my business, drama that really is none of my business, deliberate button-pushing I don't need to be exposed to - and then I either have to resist interacting with it, or fail and get sucked in and feel like a stupid shit for the rest of the day. My energy should be going elsewhere.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, even making the decision to not get involved in crap that's none of your business in the first place saps energy and sticking with it takes even more. On the plus side, the technology is making it easier than ever to filter out what you'd rather not be subjected to.

[chefxh.livejournal.com]

I still put things here i don't put in facebook, and I look back through yearly entries almost every day. I like this space because it feels like it is for me. FB feels exploitative, and G+ just confused the fuck out of me.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I look back through yearly entries almost every day

Glad I'm not the only one who does that!

[come-to-think.livejournal.com]

I'll miss you too. I have followed you with interest & admiration ever since the Bears Mailing List. I do look you up on G+, but you haven't done much there yet.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

I write an enormous amount on G+, the only reason I haven't circled you over there is because I don't know who you are!

[snousle.livejournal.com]

By which I mean, if you identified yourself over there I'd circle you and you could read everything.

[come-to-think.livejournal.com]

I seem to be "Joseph Fineman" there. They have also given me a nonsensical email address: Fuzzfiend02148@gmail.com, which they must have picked up somehow from Yahoo. It seems curious that G+ has allowed me to join without telling me what the rules are. I don't even see a like to an FAQ anywhere. At any rate, I now seem to be connected to you & a lot of other people, whom I haven't heard of.

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

Well, hardly anybody over here reads my posts anymore. I moved to facebook, and get much more action over there.

Yet I continue to come here, and post on what's left of my friends pages. I suppose nobody would miss me if I just quit.

But I don't really like G+, and I don't have an account over there.

So please continue here, at least for the short term.

[barbarian-rat.livejournal.com]

Can you send a link to your G+ blog ... I'd like to take a look.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

You can try

https://plus.google.com/u/0/102602751784345186426/posts

but there won't be much interesting stuff to read unless you create a profile and I circle you, I'm not much for public posts these days!

[topgunsman.livejournal.com]

Personally, I do read your LJ posts but have kept my distance from G+. I used to post on a somewhat regular basis and my posting has over time become nearly nonexistent. I still read. Does that make me a lurker?

I do hope you continue with LJ, but on that note, we all need to make choices and work with what best suits us.

cheers!

[bikerfuk.livejournal.com]

Google+ is the grown up Facebook.

[fingertrouble.livejournal.com]

Weirdly despite others wanting to leave, I find myself drawn back to LJ. It's the fact of Facebook and Twitter are so banal or public, I can't do private group posts easily - I hated G+ because not many people used it, and now with all the NSA shizzle I prefer having something non-US based.

Which points to LJ, really.