Alone on The Internet

[captain_slinky]

I'm so tired of the monosyllabic grunting and nodding of FaceBook. Three-Hundred-And-Fifty "Friends" over there giving the illusion of connectivity when all we're actually doing is reposting memes and clicking "Like", maybe if you're in a particularly talkative mood you can reply with a "LOL" or "NICE!" before scrolling on to the next meme. Even original posts, stuff that people took the time to writ out and share with the world, is only a line or two at the most for fear that everybody will scroll right past it because it's too long.

I miss *writing*, and I miss READING what other people WRITE. I miss the back-and-forth dialogue. I miss jumping in to a thread and making new friends. I miss challenging friends to write! In short, I miss LIVEJOURNAL. I think everyone has forgotten how to communicate, in favor of just trying to make sure their voice is among the loudest in the room.

Amazing how alone these "Social Network" sites can make you feel, isn't it?

Comments

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

I actually like Facebook. I have an overwhelming number of family and friends that are there and not here. Yes, there is a lot of meme poisoning. But my personal chatting with people I know is far above what it was here when LJ was at its height. I don't meet many new people on FB but I never did on LJ either. I don't use either for that. Over 90% of the people on my FB list are people I know in the real world.

Yes, LJ is a far superior blog platform. I have a blogspot account for that and more people read it than anything I post on LJ. Again, this is because LJ is dead. I was sorry to see how poorly LJ adapted to the rise of Facebook and Twitter.

At this point my friends feed here consists of a bunch of webcomics and you. I never see anyone else post. I rarely leave comments because I forget to check back into the conversation because the notification system rarely updates properly. It is a feature on FB that I like a lot (no pun intended). If Livejournal were alive and vibrant again I would gladly be here. But for all its faults Facebook is alive and adaptive and filled with people I know.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

I hear that a lot; variations of "Livejournal is dead because it is dead" combined with "It's far superior, I'd rather use Livejournal but since no one is using Livejournal I don't use Livejournal".

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

All true statements. I tried for years to make Livejournal work and felt like I was writing in a diary that no one would ever read. I took years of my entries and actually had them printed into a 5 pound book through lulu.com. For a while a few of my friends were on here but none of my family could be convinced to change from Myspace. Facebook crushed both of them under sheer weight of numbers.

Part of the reason people use Facebook is because there are so many people on Facebook. People don't use Livejournal because there aren't many people on Livejournal. Having that large audience is the reason Facebook works.

Both have tried to get people. One succeeded and the other didn't. Livejournal just isn't attractive to the masses. It likely never will be. It lost the fight. There will always be the faithful few who cling to it but it will never reach its full potential unless it pulls a miracle and became popular. I don't see that happening.