Over on IndieWeb Chat, Kevin Marks linked to this wonderful essay about social media that is absolutely worth reading, and examines a part of the “personal social networking” thing I’ve been on a kick about lately but didn’t quite have the words for.
For me, a big part of the problem with social media as it stands today is that everything’s about fast, immediate, in-the-moment dissemination of Hot Takes and viral propagation and so on, and that’s a design that so many of the other indie-focused social networks are trying to replicate. I’m not much a fan of microblogging or protocols which exist to make it the norm (which is why I’m still not particularly interested in supporting ActivityPub natively in Publ!) and I like being able to take some time to expand on my thoughts and not have to chunk things up into 280-to-500-character chunks and worry about fixing my spelling and grammar and phrasing right then and there.
I like being able to sit on things for a few days, and add addendums without it being a whole new post, and I like having feedback come slowly and measured. Yes, I get quick replies and a variety of favorites-like reactions via Webmention and other things, and I do appreciate that in this little nichey corner of the web this is a way that people can interact with me, but I’m not really writing for an audience so much as writing for me and my friends, and hoping that the things I write also maybe resonate with folks who happen to read it.
I still use Twitter and Tumblr and Mastodon quite a lot (much more than I’d like, really) but that’s not how I prefer to interact with folks. I don’t even try to read everything that people post there, and I have no idea how anyone can think of timeline-oriented streams-of-updates services as a place where you’re going to be able to. I just occasionally glance at them to see what’s going on and maybe interact with others in the moment, and spend much more time wondering why the hell I even bother trying to communicate in that way beyond “it’s how everyone else communicates today.”
My big concern about my blogging habits here is that I’m mostly talking about the platform itself. Blogging about blogging is so dreary. Hopefully soon the new-toy shininess will wear off and I’ll get back to using this as a means of talking to my friends about other stuff. I certainly have a lot of other stuff coming down the pike, at least. Hopefully some of it turns out well.
I guess it’s mostly just that what I have to write about is what I’m working on, and this is (mostly) what I’m working on. If I were working on other things they’d be getting posted to other parts of my site.
Not-unrelatedly, I really want to get back into making comics.
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"type": "entry",
"published": "2019-07-18T15:45:27-07:00",
"summary": "Over on IndieWeb Chat, Kevin Marks linked to this wonderful essay about social media that is absolutely worth reading, and examines a part of the \u201cpersonal social networking\u201d thing I\u2019ve been on a kick about lately but didn\u2019t quite have the words for.\nFor me, a big part of the problem with social media as it stands today is that everything\u2019s about fast, immediate, in-the-moment dissemination of Hot Takes and viral propagation and so on, and that\u2019s a design that so many of the other indie-focused social networks are trying to replicate. I\u2019m not much a fan of microblogging or protocols which exist to make it the norm (which is why I\u2019m still not particularly interested in supporting ActivityPub natively in Publ!) and I like being able to take some time to expand on my thoughts and not have to chunk things up into 280-to-500-character chunks and worry about fixing my spelling and grammar and phrasing right then and there.\nI like being able to sit on things for a few days, and add addendums without it being a whole new post, and I like having feedback come slowly and measured. Yes, I get quick replies and a variety of favorites-like reactions via Webmention and other things, and I do appreciate that in this little nichey corner of the web this is a way that people can interact with me, but I\u2019m not really writing for an audience so much as writing for me and my friends, and hoping that the things I write also maybe resonate with folks who happen to read it.\nI still use Twitter and Tumblr and Mastodon quite a lot (much more than I\u2019d like, really) but that\u2019s not how I prefer to interact with folks. I don\u2019t even try to read everything that people post there, and I have no idea how anyone can think of timeline-oriented streams-of-updates services as a place where you\u2019re going to be able to. I just occasionally glance at them to see what\u2019s going on and maybe interact with others in the moment, and spend much more time wondering why the hell I even bother trying to communicate in that way beyond \u201cit\u2019s how everyone else communicates today.\u201d\nMy big concern about my blogging habits here is that I\u2019m mostly talking about the platform itself. Blogging about blogging is so dreary. Hopefully soon the new-toy shininess will wear off and I\u2019ll get back to using this as a means of talking to my friends about other stuff. I certainly have a lot of other stuff coming down the pike, at least. Hopefully some of it turns out well.\nI guess it\u2019s mostly just that what I have to write about is what I\u2019m working on, and this is (mostly) what I\u2019m working on. If I were working on other things they\u2019d be getting posted to other parts of my site.\nNot-unrelatedly, I really want to get back into making comics.",
"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/1912-Slowcial-networking",
"name": "Slowcial networking",
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"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
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{
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"published": "2019-07-16T15:47:39-07:00",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/2019/07/16/44/travel",
"category": [
"travel"
],
"content": {
"text": "Whoa, the plane that landed in front of us blew a tire on landing and delayed our takeoff by 20 minutes while they cleaned it up. \u2708\ufe0f",
"html": "Whoa, the plane that landed in front of us blew a tire on landing and delayed our takeoff by 20 minutes while they cleaned it up. <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/emoji/%E2%9C%88%EF%B8%8F\">\u2708\ufe0f</a>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Aaron Parecki",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/",
"photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/41061f9de825966faa22e9c42830e1d4a614a321213b4575b9488aa93f89817a.jpg"
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"post-type": "note",
"_id": "4525366",
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{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2019-07-16T12:27:52-07:00",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/2019/07/16/29/language",
"syndication": [
"https://twitter.com/aaronpk/status/1151211879643009024"
],
"content": {
"text": "What are the three features a programming language absolutely must have in order for you to use it? \n\nNo wrong answers! Go!",
"html": "What are the three features a programming language absolutely must have in order for you to use it? <br /><br />No wrong answers! Go!"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Aaron Parecki",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/",
"photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/41061f9de825966faa22e9c42830e1d4a614a321213b4575b9488aa93f89817a.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "4525368",
"_source": "16"
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{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2019-07-16T16:54:50-07:00",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/2019/07/16/47/dislike",
"syndication": [
"https://twitter.com/aaronpk/status/1151279804223651840"
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"content": {
"text": "Ok that was fun, thanks for all the responses! Lots of great stuff in there. \n\nNow take your favorite programming language and tell me the 3 things you most dislike about it. \n\nNo complaining about languages you don't use!",
"html": "Ok that was fun, thanks for all the responses! Lots of great stuff in there. <br /><br />Now take your favorite programming language and tell me the 3 things you most dislike about it. <br /><br />No complaining about languages you don't use!"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Aaron Parecki",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/",
"photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/41061f9de825966faa22e9c42830e1d4a614a321213b4575b9488aa93f89817a.jpg"
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