Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Is Blogging Being Anti-Social?

As I have gone about bouncing off the walls and jumping around following this or that lead, trying to learn how to blog well (as compared to blog badly), I have to ask myself, if one has a group of friends, and family of course linked to ones blog page, and also has a news aggragator (that's bloggese for an RSS Reader) with links to various breaking news sites such as Los Angeles Times, NBC, CNN or whatever news source you like to follow-----then why should one belong to a social site such as MY place, or Yahoo etc.
I asked myself that as how many times on those social sites do ya get some stranger, giving ya the old "Hi there, will you add me to your friends list---yadda, yadda yadda, you check out his/her page and see they already have like 3000 plus friends ---this is not a person that HAS time to even say hello more than say maybe once---and that to say----"Hi there, will you add me to your friends list----" Who needs that??
So again, if one maintains a blog----and eliminates the social sites----is one being anti-social, or, as I kinda think of it---being a bit more discriminating as to who I mingle with---and want to be seen mingling with? I have to say I enjoy the atmosphere of the blogosphere much better than say the mass hysteria one gets involved with in the big Social sites such as My Place??

6 comments:

  1. I have a My Space...but really don't use it much. I've found that My Space has little spiders that get into your computer and mess it up but good! My kids and grandkids use it all the time..but then their computers are always screwed up.
    I don't think you need both Gary...your blog is social enough... and the people that leave comments here aren't begging to be "added to thier friends list"...we know we're your friend!

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  2. I use about every single one, but not for being social, but to drive traffic to my blog instead. Yes, I may have some REAL friends on these sites, but my profile helps to promote my blog at www.waynejohn.com. I visit these social sites about once a month, if that.

    I'll be covering this aspect when I start talking about promotion.

    Anti-social with purpose perhaps?

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  3. Here's a thought Gary. Do you remember back when cars were few and people walked more and you actually knew your local police officers? Then what happened? Everybody has one or two cars and the personnal connections are gone. If you read and comment on more than two dozen blogs then it becomes more like writing graffitti on a wall. The other issue here is that some people are good writers and bad conversationalists. You might be surprised if you met them in person. Hey and what ever happened to going out or getting together? Are we just becoming part of the Borg?
    I think there is a bit of mistrust about the Social sites. You keep hearing about people putting up fake info about themselves there. A blog is more of a serious hobby. I get about 100 people a week to my blog and if a couple of people find it interesting or I've helped somebody that's fine with me. I don't think I'd use My place.

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  4. I think blogging is social networking at it's best.

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  5. Social networking sites like Facebook do have their place in putting you in touch with old friends, I just never got the buzz of social networking sites. I was on MyYahoo for a bit, but did not like it. I joined Mybloglog just to promote my blog. You should read my post and offer your opinion on if social networking sites are a waste of time.

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  6. I think Blogging is the best. I have never been into other sites.

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Speak up, don't be a nebish---your opinions do count.