Most of the comments I've seen in response to Cory Doctorow's article about how
Facebook will sink under the weight of socially obligated "friendships" have fallen into two categories:
- OMG yes, it's horrible, I'm about to jump ship from my fourth social network this year!
- Um... this is a problem only if you make it a problem.
You can probably guess which one better expresses my opinion of the situation (especially since I've had this LJ for three years now). I wonder to what degree this comes from having been socially on the outside most of the time while I was growing up. I was never part of an extended social network or "in" crowd, so it doesn't occur to me to worry that if I offend or annoy one person I'll be ostracized from the group as a whole. My schoolmates already thought I was something of a freak and didn't want to be friends with me — I'm supposed to worry that if I don't pretend to be buddies with someone I don't like, they'll, what, think I'm a freak and not want to be my friend? (Right now I really wish I had a two-second video clip of Ranger Flywheel making his two-handed triple-w
whatEVer gesture. It'd be so appropriate.)
The timing was apropos, at least, as I've been thinking it's about time to put up my periodic "cutting down on inputs and going more hermity now" post.
So. It's winter and I'm feeling more hermity, and part of that is not having the time, energy, or desire to try to keep up with as many different sources of incoming information as I have been. Cutting down the number of LJs on my friends list is only part of it — I also haven't been feeling much like reading magazines, going to movies, watching DVDs, or seeing people face-to-face.
I'm actually doing remarkably well overall for it being the first week of December. This isn't a matter of my depression getting the upper hand, it's a matter of doing what I need to do to take care of myself.
So like it says in my profile, if I drop your LJ, don't take it personally.
I'm thinking of axing facebook, actually. It will be the first social networking site I decided to axe voluntarily if I do. It would be due to a concern I have about what information are all of the programs that embed themselves into your network - ie: X me, Vampires, Zombies, Harijuku Pet Zoo, etc... obtaining about you? How deep does that information go? How do they use that information? Will it result in spam, wasted marketing flyers in the mail? Not sure... but it creeps me out pretty deeply.
I guess I could get off of my lazy butt and read the fine print about the programs.
A note on hermity-ness... You could always just put a filter on until you are ready to un-hermity again. Works for reading as well as posting. (course, you being here three years, you probably know this already.)
I've been lurking for the most part myself - just reading for the most part, occasionally commenting, not much on the posting side.
That's an interesting idea, although it is probably more tied to introversion than being an outcast? Perhaps. I can only offer one viewpoint (and was on both sides in this case).