Thursday, December 30, 2010

Production of quota

c. 2,000 words, for a total of 27,042 words.

An aside: it seems clear to me that the blog is a medium curiously well suited to my modes and interests (I include Tumblr-type things under the category of blogs, but not Twitter, which I cannot find any way of feeling enthusiastic about, either as consumer or producer).

I quite like Facebook, though I wouldn't miss it much if it suddenly went away again; but the thing I most regret about it is that it seems clear that most people strongly prefer a social media-Facebook-type format to blogging - whereas to my mind, the way a blog lets you get to know its author over time is uniquely appealing, and the expressive possibilities of blogging also seem unmatched by anything Facebook and its ilk have to offer.

This is a roundabout way of saying that I have two good links to offer that come by way of Facebook status updates: a vegetable orchestra (courtesy of Charles Flatt); the eclipse in Biblical and Mesopotamian thought (courtesy of Seth Sanders). Alas, I fear it is the end of an era...

5 comments:

  1. Your vegetable orchestra reminds me of this great old Beach Boys song:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO0aNOpOYF0

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  2. I will check out your link, but in regard to your other points - quality not quantity! Blogs/RSS are much more suited to my temperament than Twitter/Facebook - I like the focus of blogs, ie I choose the ones I subscribe to, and I like interacting with bloggers with like-minded interests (a Friend Feed group is a good way to instantly form a mini-RSS feed of a group of themed blogs).

    Twitter and Facebook are no doubt good for some things - eg as a promotional tool if you are into that, and Twitter is OK for following publishers and seeing what they are currently giving away for example(!) but I have an antipathy for the "group outrage" mentality that so quickly brews up on Twitter and find it all too overwhelming.

    I think blogs have become far less about traffic and far more "personalised, interactive newspapers". Twitter seems hung up on the number of followers one has as a main goal, but maybe that will fade as the platform gains in maturity.

    Best wishes
    Maxine

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  3. To get anything out of facebook I'd have to defriend 85% of my friends -- the photo-posters, ranters, oversharers, etc. -- which something in me rebels against. (It would also defeat the purpose of using facebook, viz. to have a wider audience.) Besides one is never quite sure of the appropriate level of reticence on fb as they keep changing your privacy settings on the sly. Twitter I've come to find useful, though I didn't initially, as a way of dissipating excess verbal energy, though I admit it has no expressive possibilities in the ordinary sense.

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  4. Something I've been doing on occasion -- and maybe you have, too? -- writing a post on my blog and then sharing it on FB and Twitter.

    Which, alas, does feel pretty end-of-the-era-ish....

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