the end of an era?

[mazzie]

I know there was a scare some months ago about livejournal ZOMG SHUTTING DOWN. But it seems like, especially since then, it seems to be sort of collapsing in on itself - at least among my friends. It seems like the rise in popularity of tiwtter and facebook is ushering livejournal to an obscure place, rarely visited.

with the glaring exception of furries and slash, of course. and that ... well, that can stay here.

Comments

[kukla-red.livejournal.com]

I refuse to be a twit.

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

that's a shame, twitter is awesome.

[seity1.livejournal.com]

I've yet to find a single reason to twitter. Totally annoying and useless. IMHO

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

Me too! My husband wrote a code that actually blocks me from seeing any Twitters in my LJ. That, and my Wordpress Blog, plus LJ keeps me in contact with the folks that want to actually write more than 140 characters.

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

it's really interesting how the people who don't get/like/want twitter are disparaging about it. I don't use twitter because I don't want to write more than 140 characters, or because I am a twit, or a twat. I just like it. I don't disparage those who don't.
I am also not a fan at all of aggregating twitters on livejournal, but I feel the same way about posting the same thing on LJ and facebook, or twittering a picture and putting it on LJ, facebook, and flickr.

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

How was I disparaging, exactly?

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

plus LJ keeps me in contact with the folks that want to actually write more than 140 characters.

like I said above, I don't use/like/enjoy twitter because I "don't want to actually write more than 140 characters."

[farranger.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the appeal of Twitter or Facebook. I much prefer the latitude that LiveJournal gives me. My entries are not exactly book-length, but they can be as long as I want. I got the feeling that longish entries at Facebook just annoyed people.

[yarrowkat]

i haven't observed that. my f-list is as active as ever, and as relatively twitter-free as i can make it.

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

excellent. I've noticed that, even though my friends list has gotten a lot quieter, it seems to be completely devoid of the twitter aggregations now. hopefully it is a passed fad. :)

[stemware.livejournal.com]

There are only about half a dozen people on my friends list that post daily for this very reason.

You'll find that LJ is still growing but the segment that's growing isn't American. Facebook and Twitter are still largely American and Western European.

I haven't decided what to do with mine. I still find the occasional need to write things out to help me process them.

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

yeah, there seems to be a shift in what livejournal is about, probably mostly because of who is using it anymore. or maybe I am just growing out of it along with swaths of my friends list.

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

"or maybe I am just growing out of it along with swaths of my friends list."

I haven't noticed this...I guess I feel lucky! :)

Moggy

[fabunobo.livejournal.com]

I am sensing it too, you twat!

[etinterrapax.livejournal.com]

Sarah and Emily and Erin and I were all bitching about the same thing. They are making an effort to post more often, and so am I, but my flist is definitely not what it once was.

I don't mind Facebook, but I feel like LJ was more intimate. Everything on FB is public. That's a little much for me.

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

one of the things I miss about the lj heyday, as it were, was the constant interaction/distraction that works so well with my multitasking, whirring brain. I get that from twitter now, and from facebook somewhat.

[nrubenstein.livejournal.com]

lj is sort of a habitual rss aggregator with some friends occasionally posting on top of that for me. i've just been too lazy to switch comprehensively to google reader.

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

I should really get my google on for an rss reader. I recently found some grammar blogs that make me ridiculously happy. also, in addition to facebook and twitter, a lot of people are taking off for wordpress and blogger.

[verymelm.livejournal.com]

I use Bloglines as an RSS reader. Pr'bly not as fancy as some, but it does what I want so I haven't bothered to really look for others. *shrug*

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

thanks :) you're one of the reasons I want to get an rss reader. :)

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

reader.google.com works fantastically.

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

I'm in no rush to give up LJ, although as Facebook evolves its new front page to include the ability to filter out applications you don't want to see (so I can finally not see all the damned memes people post, ever), it edges toward sucking far less.

Other than that, I'm only on Facebook because there are people I want to be in touch with who only frequent Facebook.

[dave-t-lurker.livejournal.com]

I'm in no rush to leave LJ, but if I do I have a domain standing by to move to that will be LJ compatible.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I'm not leaving. I'm on Facebook too, but it serves an entirely different purpose for me. I have no interest in Twitter, and fortunately very few friends who insist on porting their "tweets" into LJ.

The way I compare Facebook and LJ is that the former is broader, but much shallower. It's great for keeping loosely in contact with people you used to know (or know only as casual acquaintances), but for staying current with your right-now friends and having actual conversations, LJ is much better.

[pickled-cotton.livejournal.com]

I've noticed the same thing - a lot less posts on my friends list. However, it's moreso that the people aren't posting ANYWHERE - they've joined Facebook, but really only play Pet Society or make those stupid lists. Seems like people have less time lately, or at least less time for online stuffs.

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

I've had a few people go away for a while and reactivate their journals recently, or start new ones. I have a Facebook account and today I know that two friends are tired, one is ill, one is glad it's the weekend and others have cryptic messages that only a few "in the know" friends can understand. I check Facebook for 5 minutes a few times a week and I know nothing more about the people that post there than I would if I wouldn't check it at all. I also have 100 requests for all kinds of games I won't play. My main forms of blogging are here and on my Wordpress Blog.

[h2openguin.livejournal.com]

I have different sets of friends, yes, there is overlap, but I don't write "notes" on facebook, I don't consider anything I put on twitter or plurk to really be substantial, and I like the ability to have a conversation and not be limited to what I share by the limit of 140.

So you're probably right, but I hope you're not.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

hey now. I post. *sob*

Actually, one of the interesting things for me is seeing who notices what, where. I'll post things here, I'll post things there, later, or vice versa. And while most of the people I know in person on lj I am also friends with on facebook, for the most part lj peeps reply on lj, and frequently it seems like they only actually *saw* it on lj. I think facebook skims too much; it's very easy to miss updates from people.

these (lj, twitter, fb) are all very different applications, that serve different needs. It's possible the feeling of connectedness that twitter and facebook bestow obviates a lot of the impetus to both write and respond to >140 character entries. Lots of little communications satisfy us enough that we don't need large, weighty ones. But I still think we're losing something in the trade.

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

I know! and I love your posts! I find that I see the "teaser" on FB, then look for it here rather than there, mostly because I feel less guilty about reading lj at work than facebook. I dunno why.

they definitely serve different needs, and I don't know if my needs are shaping to what is most available/satisfying in terms of the stimulation/response ratio (the heart of all addiction, right?), or that the majority of the people I "follow" in one medium or another are wandering off and I am following them. We may well be losing something in the trade, but maybe the era of navel gazing in several paragraphs for the world (or your selected audience) to see is passing.

Interestingly, the lion's share of people I know on facebook don't twitter, but I would guess everyone on twitter knows what facebook is (and probably livejournal, too). and the only people I've seen who disparage twitter do it in livejournal. :)

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

I think people disparage it so much on lj because of all the twitter aggregations that kept publishing these one-line annoyances to the exclusion of real content.

Just like people on FB get annoyed at all of the silly quizzes that start popping up- other people's actions start having a negative impact on one's own personal experience. and yes, you could filter those people out, except presumably you wanted them on your friendslist for a reason, and in any case it results in a person being driven unwillingly to change how they interact with their own journal thanks to the actions of others. That is incontrovertibly cranky-making. ;-)

[keeyoo.livejournal.com]

I was *almost* on the brink of starting a twitter feed, but then the newsnerds found it and it really lost all appeal for me...

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

newsnerds?
twitter is like irc in a lotta ways, cept it's easier to ignore the douchebags.

[keeyoo.livejournal.com]

Noozedouches!

Yeah, yeah, but I spend way too much time online as it is...

[dindin.livejournal.com]

I use them for different things now. Long processy stuff goes here. Day to day stuff goes there.

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

Ooooh I hope not...I don't like Twitter and Facebook just ain't the same. :(

[kdm23.livejournal.com]

Yep. This happened for me and my flist about a year or so ago. But I still check my friends page, so I'm sad to lose you, too.

[caereala.livejournal.com]

My decrease in LJ use is due to my new job... every time I start to post it just devolves into a rant/ bitch session. Once I get the career situation straightened out, I should be back.