Facebook Is Interfering with My Blogging Habit
I have to admit it: I like Facebook. I like having tiny connections with friends spread far and wide. Some of them I’m in regular contact with anyway, but some are people I would never see, never email, never call, or receive such messages in return. We are all so busy, so wrapped up in our adult lives of responsibility, whatever form that may take. The status updates I read (and write) with increasing fervor are like little word snapshots. They are windows into other worlds. Peeks into someone else’s screenplay. They are usually surface-only glimpses, but they are better than nothing. They are way better than TV for their ability to distract me and bring me out of my own little sphere.
And I like the tiny validations I get when people comment on my updates. I like knowing that someone witnessed, even in this small, thumbs-up way, what is happening with me. What’s more, the frequency of updates is greater than the LiveJournal posts I also monitor religiously (stalk?). In this way, Facebook is more reinforcing—ask Ian. Behavior modification is all about frequency of reinforcement. And so, my behavior over the last several months has been modified by Facebook. I’m writing less frequently here. I’m writing and reading more frequently there. It’s kind of like crack. But "Facecrack" is a sucky name for the phenomenon.
June 28, 2009 at 3:17 pm
You’re awesome! Thank you for posting on Live Journal.
I will be sad if we lose your LJ post. I really enjoy your family posts and frequent displays of wit.
June 28, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I admit, I keep up with Facebook a lot more right now than I do LJ, but I really enjoy the longer entries on LJ a lot more. The longer entries reflect a different amount of energy and motivation than do the brief FB updates.
June 28, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I’m not on FB, so please, please keep posting here! *smooch*
June 29, 2009 at 12:44 am
What a great post! I know what you mean about Facebook. I have decided to only check on there and update once per day now, and to not do any quizzes or games. Seems to have helped quite a bit! Good luck balancing all of the online stuff…Facebook can be a really positive way to connect with friends.
June 30, 2009 at 11:41 pm
You know, I think of Facebook and LiveJournal as having two entirely different purposes. Facebook is “public.” My mother is there, my coworkers are there, everybody is there. It’s the shopping mall food court of my blogging world. A little too brightly lit, a little too designed to render a positive “consumer experience.”
LiveJournal is my coffee house. It’s for talking, it’s for digging around in the dirt, it’s for poetry and angst and hashing things out. It’s for honing writing skills and using all the punctuation.
I adore your posts, and will eagerly read you wherever I can find you. I love reading about your boys, and your relationships, your sense of place, your sense of love.
July 1, 2009 at 12:30 am
Thanks, everyone. You people make me happy!