The Social Trifecta Redux
Several months ago I said I might be leaving Facebook. Not much happened to be honest. Some of my friends only use Facebook and it is a fun site to visit when you are bored. But it’s like I really don’t know these people. All the communication on there seems so shallow and impersonal. As if it’s really not about communicating with your friends, but being noticed by your friends.
This morning I woke up with a nice surprise in my inbox. An invite to the main Diaspora site. I can use whatever name I want, I’m not forced to enter my DoB and the user interface is simple, as it should be. I don’t have many people on my list, but it made me think about what has happened recently.
I’ve always favoured Twitter, so there’s no reason for me to repeat myself, how much I love Twitter. Although, a few weeks ago I got a Shortmail account. At first I was a sceptic, but now I’m loving it! The combination of Twitter and Shortmail is perfect. I enjoy it so much I’m trying to get more of my friends to start using Twitter and Shortmail.
Time they switched to something I use, instead of the other way around.
Now that I have Dispora, I have decided to take a holiday from Facebook. A whole month. So in September, I will not be visiting Facebook. I will announce it, in hope the majority of my friends at least keeps in touch via email. I guess I will find out who my true friends really are. The night before I will not only log out of Facebook, but also delete the app from my iPod Touch. In addition, if someone asks for my Facebook page, I will let them choose between Twitter, Shortmail and Diaspora.
It’s not a perfect solution for everyone, but it will be for me. Which is why I find it a bit sad that so many have apparently given up on email. Something so simple, yet no hardly uses it anymore. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but email is the only communication service I can think of that doesn’t discriminate. If I’m sending an email from shortmail.com to gmail.com, it will be received. Try sending a message from Twitter to Identi.ca or chat on MSN with someone on Skype. Not going to happen. Yet email is looked upon as useless? Hopefully Shortmail will rectify that.
Also, Have we become that shallow we prefer talking openly so everyone can see what we are talking about? Or is it that fake feeling of being popular.
“Oh, look at me, I have 1,200 Facebook friends and 48,000 followers on Twitter. That must mean that at least 60,000 people around the world like me.”
No, not everyone. They just hope you will follow them back or give them some attention too. It has become this bizarre circle-jerk.
“Hey, look at me!”
Time to go back to basics! Focusing on content when communicating.
So for now, the easiest way to contact me will be by sending me an email to my Shortmail address: dokterw [at] shortmail [dot] com.
NB: Feeling a bit poorly, so please ignore any written mistakes.
