Wednesday, March 18, 2009

THE SPIN ON CYCLES
*click on graphs to enlarge
The current market meltdown bears a lot of similarities to the ups & downs of communicating with others in cyberspace. This graph demonstrates the emotions involved.



After three years of Blogging I am just starting to get it.

Lately I've been examining the similarifferences between Blogging, Facebook & the new kid on the block Twitter.


IMHO nothing (so far) compares to Blogging. You create the content so it can be and look like anything you can dream up. It can be a gallery, diary, legacy, outlet, inlet- whatever! Sure it sucks if you don't get 100 comments but we can't be all things to all people. You need to blog for you...and once in a while..like Field Of Dreams..if you create something funny, informative, interesting or new..they will come...and it doesn't matter how many.


Facebook is easier and ready to serve. Perfect for folks who either aren't interested in or don't have the time to invent content. I've had some great instant messaging conferences with other Bloggers on Facebook..which sounds weird but it's a little more private and happening in real time.

Twitter, at 140 characters, is downright lazyass sound-byting, but it does have unbelievable linking potential..for your BLOG! I'm not sold yet but I have noticed that nobody can say muchof anything in 140 and so they all seem to add links. Hmm?


NEXT!


43 comments:

  1. Is my resistance to joining twitter vindicated then? Was I right all along? If so, why is don't I get my lazy ass into gear and update my blog more regularly?

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  2. I've not done the facebook or any other social networking thing. People send invites; I discard them. Seriously, if I want to let someone know what's going on, I'll call; better yet, I'll send an email, possibly with picture attachments.

    I honestly only got a blog because I won those infamous green elf shorts...but it's been a fun escape and a great way to engage other people. It's also a great way to express thoughts and ideas, give them structure or let them play out and see what develops.

    Also, I like keeping it a secret from people and friends I deal with in the real world. It's like a whole other secret life that I'm enjoying! And I've met some pretty awesome bloggers, like yourself, with some fantastic views and great sense of humor!

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  3. Good analizes!
    A while I don't go on Facebook.
    Blogger's cool.
    Twitter don't know.

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  4. Well put, Mr Coppens!
    Everyone seems to be twittering and I've not done Facebook. Like Mr Swings, I'm an accidental blogger.
    Sx

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  5. I have been through the Valley of the shadow of darkness this past year with my blogging. I was certain I had lost the funny. I was certain I had nothing to say. Then I got on Facebook and that scratched a whole new itch for a while. Now I'm kind of bored with FB because not enough people use it as a place to discuss ideas -- which has gotten me excited about blogging again. I think my chart would have more of a loop with a twist.

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  6. Facebook is for getting in touch with your school chums. No thanks.

    Blogging is for making and keeping in touch with new friends.

    Twitter is a less long-winded way of keeping in touch with your blogging friends and for finding out how boring most celebrities are.

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  7. VICUS
    Do you ever get tired of being right?

    MR.SWINGS
    It is wise to keep somethings private although most of my blogmates don't fall into the TMFI category.

    Blogging is in a different league altogether. It is waaaaaay more interesting


    CANDIE
    Facebook is great for pleasantries and poofy do-dads. The instant messaging is fun but it isn't a very good forum for discussing ideas

    SCARLS
    This post started out as one of my long-winded cheerleading bits on blogging. One thing that I had mentioned was the need to get involved in a "happening" connector site...like yours.

    Everyone loves you because you are a humble, gracious, witty, hostess with a great set of attitudes!

    Since men are visual creatures and we cannot multitask, we can't separate whoever you are from your avatar.


    MUTHA
    Welcome back. FB loses me because of it's shallow, whisper thin veneer. Oh sure it is what it is and that's great for saying Hi, what have you been doing, let's see your dog & kids.

    The only reason I keep mine is to have chats with other Bloggers..maybe Blogger should pick up on that?


    GEOFF
    Celebrities on Twitter ARE boring! We tend to forget that they get their lines written for them.

    I'm trying to decide how to link like-minded cybervolk to my Blog without too much duress...I'll gladly read their blogs. I wonder how many Twitterers are still Bloggerers?

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  8. I'm still hanging in with the blogging and the Twittering, despite the increasing indifference from readers to both :(

    Blogging allows me to meander on tediously.

    I've tried to put surreal, made up stuff on Twitter, but I think you're supposed to talk about what you're eating for lunch. When you see everybody else's Twittering it starts to look like a random mess.

    I still prefer Blogger and Twitter to Facebook though, because they allow you a bit of anonymity.

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  9. I only blog maybe two hours a day and get a fair amount of hits so it is fun to interract with people, but what really puzzles me is those bloggers who can't write something entertaining/thoughtful/amusing to save their lives, and hardly anyone visits their blog and yet they keep going.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I thought from the beginning twitter would be a flash in the pan.

    I'm on facebook to keep in contact with family and friends. I'm not blogging much because I haven't got much to say at the moment. That may change. But right now there is more conversation going on on facebook than the blog.

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  11. Facebook is the equivalent to passing notes and throwing spitwads during class. I use the message feature to bug a buddy of mine in the UK. otherwise, fugeddaboudit. *dodges hurled sheep*

    Twitter? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, Paco. I refuse. Utterly. The online equivalent of standing in an airport terminal and hearing scraps of random conversation as people pass.

    MySpace iz 4 ppl how donut rid 2 wel. JUGGALO 4 LIF! I had a MySpace briefly (some folks may only be contacted thusly i.e. refuse to blog like adults; sheesh) but the constant high intensity pop suckage format wore.

    not that i have anything like an opinion about this stuff. Nailed it, Coppens!

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  12. ...equivalent OF.

    *slinks away*

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  13. This is a great post (where'd you get those graphics?) and amazingly current for my own situation. So far I have studiously avoided Twittering but I seem to have hit blogging doldrums and sometimes Facebook is just downright annoying. Early on I abandoned all pretense of memes in blogging and applications on Facebook so I've managed to keep the irritation factor to a minimum with both. However I agree aboyut your assessment of blogging. For those who need multiple outlets for their twiste -- er -- creative minds, blogging is the best. I started blogging about 10 minutes after I discovered its existence. Comin' up on 4 years now. No wonder I'm burned out.

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  14. Via facebook, I met my school and college friends again after so long. Also it keeps me updated about my blogger friends. I have had a twitter account for very long but forgot until you reminded me. I am trying to keep abreast with it but don't know how long I will stick with that.

    Give me blogging anyday.

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  15. I hate people and I'm on everything. Its an in joke with myself that isn't very funny.
    I'm even on 'I can haz cheesburger' with my 11 friends boy am I the social moth.

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  16. I would like to see the graph cycles offset a bit and then superimposed. You know, like biorhythms!

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  17. I think I've got some of Old Knudsen on me.

    *wipes at stain*

    Oh Hai XL!

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  18. Once again, I get to leave your blog with a smile.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I have reached a point in blogging where I feel lost and unfufilled.
    Maybe it's just old age.
    Me thinks a new blog with a fresh look may do the trick....
    they say change is as good as a holiday.

    ReplyDelete
  20. You can't beat blogging. A permanent website, entirely your own, that you can do whatever you want with, which can also become a social networking tool.

    Facebook is fun, and a timesuck, but honestly how much actual interaction with other people do you get? Not that much, and not that detailed unless you're doing a real-time chat. Also Facebook doesn't allow the permanency - I know that if I post something on my blog now with the tag "pregnancy", in ten years time I'll still be able to pull it up easily and let Elspeth read it. (But there is ALSO the facility to delete posts!!)

    As for Twitter... I don't get it. WTF? If you can sum up all you want to say in 140 characters, you're not thinking or doing enough.

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  21. BETTY
    I have noticed a disruption in the force (blogosphere)..it may be a combination of our autonomous collective reaching a level of fatigue plus the advent of these other distractions.

    In any event I can't imagine using Twitter for more than a billboard for my Blog and facebook is too collegiate for my liking. I'm surprised that my young adult children haven't found a way to boot me and the other dinosaurs off or moved on to a new thing.

    Twittervolk are an older crowd and maybe it formed to get away from them?


    EMMAK
    I remember when I started blogging and I was writing my heart out for months on end without much response. When I stopped trying and started to write what I wanted to write things started to happen.

    Now that I have peaked and reached my best before date, I am finally at a point where I can relax and just do whatever the hell I want.
    Now I'm having fun.


    LAURALIZ
    I remember the initial rush of re-connecting with people on FB. It was fun to see what they were like out of their Bloganalities.

    Most peeps are pretty much the same but there isn't any pressure to sound smart or funny or whatever on FB. It is what it is.
    I spent a while focussing on it but once you catch up it's pretty meh.


    NATIONS
    HAHAHAHA! You are so funny. I concur with your awesome evaluations. Twitter is scraps...it never gets going.

    Basically the math just isn't there to do all 3...unless you do it half-assed. There just isn't enough time...

    and the work/fun ratio still favours blogging..hands down.


    AHNDRAYA
    Four years is awesome. I don't think that many cybervolk last that long.

    I fidgeted with the graph in the Newspaper. It instantly jumped out at me while I was reading the list of emotions..fear, denial, desperation, panic, capitulation, despondency and depression describe the "post-partum blues".

    If you do need a creative outlet then you need to blog but if you just like chatting & catching up then FB is fine...except for the 8 million clickstreaming apps that advertisers use to map your network...BASTARDS!

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  22. GAUTAMI
    Uber creative entities such as yourself belong in the blogosphere.
    FB is great for re-connecting but peeps on FB just want little bits of info and pictures of their dogs and kids.

    The attention span of readers is good measuring stick:
    Blog 5 minutes
    FB 45 seconds
    Twitter 1 nano second


    OLD KNUDEY TOOTY
    HAHAHA!

    You crotchety old bugger. The need to impose your will on others over-rides your disdain for the great unwashed. Besides the world needs your sagely advice lest society breaks down and we enter the new dark age.

    Let them eat your *cake.
    *hopes MJ doesn't see this
    :(

    OH HAI XL
    I would like to be able to figure out how to do a lot of things but I get caught up in the moment and I have zero tolerance for tutorials on photoshop.

    Someday I hope to learn how to do things properly but in the meantime I will continue to produce "good-enuff stuff".


    ANGEL
    You are a one-woman-cyber-machine! I am truly humbled.

    I have no idea how you manage to zip around and do all the things that you do? You must have 8 arms and four laptops in front of you.


    OH HAI MJ
    Eeew!

    Next time remember to wear your Hazmat suit!



    GILLETTE
    Like you I was curious about Twittering. I still don't know what the endgame is? I did notice that almost all of the twits are using links to articles because you just don't have enough space to say anything. It's headlines..and if you can make them interesting enough then I imagine someone will follow the trail of crackers.

    We'll see how long I last out there.


    SNAKE
    Well you have been at it for a while..I change my template once a week because I get bored with my look.

    A new angle or style is always fun. I also resort to letting my alter egos take over when I really, really, really need a change. Writing from someone else's perspective is always fun.


    STACE
    Superb analogy. Twittering seems half-baked but somehow it is a relief..is brevity next to godliness? I know how awful it must be to read one of my tedious drawnout diatribes..UGH! The one thing about Twitter is that you know that it will be fast...less filling...it's like Take-Out Thoughts.

    You're right about the legacy part too. This will be in cyberspace forevah and it is my guarantee that that I will never be allowed to run for public office. I am held ransom by my assinine views...although voters do have short memories don't they?

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  23. mostly I have nothing to say anyway so 140 is far too many . . .

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  24. ZIZ-A-ZIG-ZIG-ZIG
    Don't be such a silly goose. You are hilarious and delightful and I treasure your bon mots.

    Let us never speak of this unpleasantness again.

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  25. Bugger....got here too late everyone has said everything...mmm

    ReplyDelete
  26. Donn:
    This post is just what I've been waiting for. Thanks.
    I love blogging because I love pictures and words together.
    I'm tempted to twitter because of the brevity - but I think I should get out more....
    OK - only joking - stupid idea!

    ReplyDelete
  27. SARAH
    If everything has been said then we are in serious trouble? Have tried Twittering..I really want to get my head around it but I don't geddit.

    KAZ
    Get out of here!
    Get out more?
    Do you mean get out in the rw?
    Or get out more often in the blogosphere?
    HAHAHA!

    I get it!

    ReplyDelete
  28. due to me being an idiot i left a comment two posts down. um, dont know why. could be the multi doing thing problem i have, meaning who knows i am an artard.

    it is in response to your comment bout the male appendage eating men without their bodies on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  29. COMPULSIVE
    No worries I have already been there and back and over and back and now I'm back here writing this and everything is copacetic!
    :)

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  30. thank you for your kind words of support, sugar! i'm back! xox

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous5:38 pm

    So essentially your thesis is that there are meltups as well as meltdowns in econmomic and communications phenomena; and that with sufficient study, similarifferences are inevitably revealed - for example, in every case, cycles spin.

    ReplyDelete
  32. It would be great if Blogger could put a chat thingie on here as well.

    I blog just to let my mind spill forth... and I bet more than half the ideas I get for blogs get forgotten before I ever get in front of the computer, because I think them up when I am not home... like driving, riding my horse, at work, whatever.

    I also twitter but just with a few... I haven't expanded that yet and like you, am still trying to see if I think it works (in what way, I have yet to determine).

    Facebook... well, that is just to keep in touch with my family and friends in faraway places... and even then, the real stuff is done via email. Not sure why I bother, although I do like playing Wordscraper once in a while.

    All in all, blogging wins hands down. If I didn't have a job, I am sure I would have a lot more posts up. But gotta pay the mortgage somehow!

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  33. DONN--

    i got the nonsensical twitter thing going on now. dont know what to do with it but i was intrigued. left you a comment on my blog and one on twitter too.

    ReplyDelete
  34. SAVANNAH
    Atta girl! Glad that you decided to stay. Interpersonal communications can often go awry..especially out here..it's the trickiest part about being a human being. However, when push comes to shove sometimes you need to make a stand.

    I'm here for you.


    PROFESSOR VON VOLUBLE
    What an honour it is to have such a highly esteemed scholar grace the coment box of my little blog.
    I am truly humbled.
    As Professor Plotzenheimer explained to me..I told him to imagine that I was in the fifth grade...

    anyway he said, "Vot goze up, must kohme down, and zen goze up, und zen goze down, und up und down und up und down und up und down."


    PONITA
    Ditto. I forget over half of all the useless ideas that I conjure up at work..I should just jot them down but wattayagonnado?

    Facebook is used as glorified e-mail for the rellies but I do enjoy chatting with the bloggers..that's fun...I should start using the VOP so that I could hear them...all those great accents would be fantastic! I hate speaking Central Canadian perfect inflection-free inglush. It's the burden we WhatEVERpeggers must bear for the greater good, I suppose.

    ReplyDelete
  35. "I forget over half of all the useless ideas that I conjure up at work..I should just jot them down but wattayagonnado?"

    What? You work?

    Trust you to be so timely with this. While I've almost completely given up blogging for the time-being, I've increased my time on Facebook.

    The Twittering thing, I've avoided so far, although it's all the rage at work and eventually, I'll have no choice but to get our people to start doing it at events.

    It seems to me it's not a lot different thatn FB's what's on your mind thing.

    The point is, there are way too many options out there, and you can't (or I can't) do them all at once.

    Clearly, this is proving I am not a multi-tasker.

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  36. Twitter: Haiku for the rythmically challenged? 93 characters left. Now 73. 65. 61....

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  37. Anonymous11:25 am

    Couldn't've put it better myself!

    Facebook goes ina whole different category for me because it is Real Life and for organising shizzle rather than blogging and sharing opinions and meeting new people.

    I can't keep up with twitter. It gives me a headache. I'm too old to learn these new things.

    BLOGGING FOREVER! HURRAH!

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous7:51 pm

    Facebook is good for connecting you with old friends. The rest of it bores me silly. It's blogging for me.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Anonymous9:38 pm

    Facetwiter? Twitbook?
    All nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Great post.I thought of going on Twitter when I first heard it referred to as micro blogging. Like taking a multiple choice test instead of having to do an essay, but you got it right, where are the options? It gets boring awfully fast.

    All these social networking sites are people grasping for some kind of personal connection. But with blogging, people seem more real. It's easier to figure out where you want to cyber-loiter in the blogosphere than anywhere else online.

    ReplyDelete
  41. This is the post I was looking for...
    Sx

    ReplyDelete

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