We Are Immune to Your Consultations
Dec. 27th, 2011 03:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cinema_babeI've been mainly off-line for the past few weeks except for a few hit and run visits. In that time the look and some of the functionality of the comment feature here was changed and I've seen people complaining about it in most of the communities I've gotten caught up on so far. It's funny because at least 2 other social networking sites I'm on have also had some major facelifts and if I threw all of the comments I've seen across all three sites into a hopper, I bet you couldn't tell which site they came from.
Fact 1: Change is disorienting and uncomfortable.
Fact 2: Humans, as a species, generally don't like change in their interfaces
Fact 3: Change is inevitable.
Fact 4: On the up side, with few exceptions, acclimation is inevitable as well.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bart_calendar posted his observations on the reaction cycle to changes and service interruptions LiveJournal. I found it wry, amusing and mostly true.
OK, this next bit is is a little convoluted (and tangentially related) but follow me....
emmabovary (isn't that an awesome screen name?) recently reposted a poignant LJ entry from sir_montag about decline and death of LiveJournal. Narcissist that I am, I liked my response (which I wrote during a break while writing my final paper for my Social Media class, natch) and I post behind the LJ Cut below in case anyone else is interested in my opinion (or is having a bout of insomnia, lol)
I think this is true, sorta, and not so true, sorta.
Every social networking site has it's heyday and it's decline (yes, even the mighty FaceBook will go the way of MySpace one day).
This format only ever appealed to a small portion of the public, most people don't put the time into writing something meaningful or entertaining or introspective; think how few people kept paper journals back in the analog age.
FaceBook and Twitter blew up because they provided something that a huge chunk of the public wanted: a way to *feel* like they are communicating with the world/ It's a heady feeling to think that everyone in your network and maybe even their networks are reading your peals of wisdom and care about it. It's important that people know that I leveled up on Mafia Wars, dammit!
If you randomly read people's journals you will find that a good portion of them are filled with inane posts about teen age angst, what one had for dinner, bad poetry and the like. I suspect that if I was able to do a survey, a lot of those folks have fled to FB pretty much for good.
The sad thing is that with this flight so many people who do use this site as a place of communication and community see this flight as a sign that LF is dying and themselves will leave for FB or some other platform.
But I don't think it means that LJ is dying (not from lack of use at least). It seems to be the fate of large social networking sites to recreate themselves. Friendster became big overseas; MySpace shrunk considerably and is rapidly going back to its roots as a site for indie musicians to get their music out to the public. Even the defunct proto social networking site Six Degrees is making noises about booting back up again.
As a caveat I do think there are external factors that might torpedo the site the DDOS attacks or a complete lock down by the Russian government. Those are things that are outside of the control of the users. But I think that like other sites, LJ's user base will shrink and become a concentrated core of users who will use the site to meet their needs.
(Why yes, I have spent a whole semester studying social networking sites, lol)
Fact 1: Change is disorienting and uncomfortable.
Fact 2: Humans, as a species, generally don't like change in their interfaces
Fact 3: Change is inevitable.
Fact 4: On the up side, with few exceptions, acclimation is inevitable as well.
bart_calendar posted his observations on the reaction cycle to changes and service interruptions LiveJournal. I found it wry, amusing and mostly true.OK, this next bit is is a little convoluted (and tangentially related) but follow me....
emmabovary (isn't that an awesome screen name?) recently reposted a poignant LJ entry from sir_montag about decline and death of LiveJournal. Narcissist that I am, I liked my response (which I wrote during a break while writing my final paper for my Social Media class, natch) and I post behind the LJ Cut below in case anyone else is interested in my opinion (or is having a bout of insomnia, lol) I think this is true, sorta, and not so true, sorta.
Every social networking site has it's heyday and it's decline (yes, even the mighty FaceBook will go the way of MySpace one day).
This format only ever appealed to a small portion of the public, most people don't put the time into writing something meaningful or entertaining or introspective; think how few people kept paper journals back in the analog age.
FaceBook and Twitter blew up because they provided something that a huge chunk of the public wanted: a way to *feel* like they are communicating with the world/ It's a heady feeling to think that everyone in your network and maybe even their networks are reading your peals of wisdom and care about it. It's important that people know that I leveled up on Mafia Wars, dammit!
If you randomly read people's journals you will find that a good portion of them are filled with inane posts about teen age angst, what one had for dinner, bad poetry and the like. I suspect that if I was able to do a survey, a lot of those folks have fled to FB pretty much for good.
The sad thing is that with this flight so many people who do use this site as a place of communication and community see this flight as a sign that LF is dying and themselves will leave for FB or some other platform.
But I don't think it means that LJ is dying (not from lack of use at least). It seems to be the fate of large social networking sites to recreate themselves. Friendster became big overseas; MySpace shrunk considerably and is rapidly going back to its roots as a site for indie musicians to get their music out to the public. Even the defunct proto social networking site Six Degrees is making noises about booting back up again.
As a caveat I do think there are external factors that might torpedo the site the DDOS attacks or a complete lock down by the Russian government. Those are things that are outside of the control of the users. But I think that like other sites, LJ's user base will shrink and become a concentrated core of users who will use the site to meet their needs.
(Why yes, I have spent a whole semester studying social networking sites, lol)
