Social Networking and Angst



It has been a dozen years since I began my first online journal on the now extinct Y!360. It was more than a blog and less than a chat room. And in spite of my proclamations to the contrary more than a social network. I made some long and fast friends and some not so fast as it were. And as Yahoo brought it to a close we followed each other to various other social platforms to stay connected.

I came here because of its blog capacity and not its social networking. It took me a while to miss my ethernet friends that migrated to Multiply and then to Facebook grumbling all the way. I miss Y!360 still. It was a unique experiment and not everyone's cup of tea. But those of us that loved it have not been quite happy with anything else we find. And too many have learned to grumble all too well.

When the dictators come out and think they can reshape the social platform and those on it I escape to the quiet of my forest - my blog - where I can do what it was I first sought the blogosphere for  - on line journalling. There seems to be a trend on Facebook, my social network part of this connected experiment, to dictate what friends post. Or at least attempt to. There was a war about posting what you cooked for dinner. And then the war about doing status messages about the weather or the chores you did for the day. Now it is posting too many pictures. Or sharing too many photos of Johnny C. Depp.

I use Facebook in combination with my blogs on Creative Journey as promotion of my small art business. Networking. Facebook has fan pages for me and my artistic friends to do this. We also use the Group function to hold "meetings" on line. Binford-Bell Studio on Facebook as a business but has evolved also into a social network location for my friends from my primary page to talk art and photography. And I have fans on that page that are not friends on my primary page in Facebook.

That led me to thinking this morning when I was so upset at the dictators telling me what to post that my Timeline on Facebook is not about them. It is about ME. I have even made it accessible by in large to friends and friends of friends only. It is my on line diary. I record what my day has been about for me and if some of my friends care, and comments would show they do, then that is fine. Those friends usually have their settings to see my postings in their news feed. As I have friend by friend set my options to see what they post.

What I post on my Timeline (on line diary) includes especially good recipes and meals, my newest exercise program, great times with friends in the earthly world, links to things that really interest me and I want to do further research on and, Yes, pictures of Johnny Depp.

I post my angst and elation on blogs here in blogspot. I link those blogs to my Timeline for those friends that care. Please ignore if you do not. I ignore your negative comments be they here or there or Google+. And if they are rude I delete them or do not publish.

Bottom line: This is all about me.

Oh, and some keeping up with those dear friends from Y!360 I wish to keep up with

Comments

  1. RaenieAugust 18, 2013 at 8:08 PM

    I *so* agree! It's always nice to see you "put into words", what I feel. (smile)

    Yes, blogging is supposed to be about the Blogger... lol...

    Too many folks just aren't aware of Internet Etiquette. Or that there actually is such a thing.

    ~Raenie

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I write for me but I care what my readers think. Please be polite and no scamming.

Popular posts from this blog

Polyethylene Packaging - a Dark Times Journal entry

Image
I was in the fourth grade when our family moved from El Paso, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We moved because I could not breathe the air there. I want to say they cracked petroleum there. But what did I know beyond the sky was sometimes yellow and I could not breathe. Mom was pregnant with Debbie, and Gary and I rode in the backseat separated by a round tank full of Dad's tropical fish. Dad had a job with Sealright, Inc which made paper milk cartons. Sealright was a polyethylene packing subsidiary of Phillips 66. The petroleum company. I was rather proud of myself for learning to say that, and to not laugh when adults would stare at me not knowing what to ask about that. Albuquerque smelled better. Then. Before all the freeways were built and the shape of the valley trapped the exhaust down near the ground in the winter months. We lived in the foothills. I could breathe. I learned that if I could see the air I could not. Still it was better than El Paso though I missed our trip...
Read more

Swimming

Image
For much of my college career my fitness workout was swimming on the B squad of the swim team. I remember it as the days before heated pools and women coaches. I also remember being so exhausted and cold I could only lean against the shower wall and throw up. Not exactly warm fuzzy images but I was in awesome shape. Needless to say it did not leave me with a overpowering desire to swim laps. Point of fact for years my swimming became really informal: Swimming to shore after the canoe tipped over, challenging my sister once a summer to across the lake and back, seeing how long I could back float without moving a muscle, and a scuba course. I also played around with other ways of staying fit: aerobics, bicycling, jogging, skiing and dance classes. All of which seem to be bad for the knees, back or feet. After my ski accident my physical therapist steered me back to the pool. Damn if I was going to swim laps! However, aqua fit was just getting rather seriously taken so I took it. It r...
Read more

The Pruning the Crown of Thorns

Image
Crown of Thorns Before I am a lover of Euphorbias . They are from the deserts of Southern Africa and Madagascar. They have evolved physical characteristics and forms similar to cacti of North and South America and are often incorrectly referred to as cacti. My big Crown of Thorns was one of my first of a growing collection of these succulents from the spurge family of Euphorbiaceae. I picked it up as a 6 inch plant in a New Iberia nursery when my sister and I were touring the northern gulf coast. I believe that was 15 years ago. I made an attempt at limiting its height a few years back to allow it to devote more energy to the new branches and make it a denser plant. That failed. And the height of the plant continued to challenge the window space and soon the long branches were leaning over and leaning against the window. I googled and found the proper way to prune this treasured plant. Still it was very difficult to cut off the four longer branches. Even with a plan. The f...
Read more