The Hollosphere

Is just me, or is blogging beginning to be old school?  Passe?  So, like, five-minutes-ago?  Maybe, maybe not.  I’m reading that some forward thinking web gurus are blogging less and less, increasing their use of social networking tools like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others to connect with the wider internet community, passing around news, tech tips, pictures, ideas, articles, current whereabouts, party plans, and just about anything else you can think of sharing, all online and nearly in real time.

I’ve noticed that my public online writing energy has veered ever further away from blogging and into the developing world of social networking tools.  Blogging for me has usually meant a fairly extended solitary exercise of crafting an article (since I’m kind of picky about what and how I write), perhaps working on an image to include, then posting the article and maybe getting a comment or two.  Or not.  Even if I make the effort to eyeball my site statistics, I don’t really have an intimate sense of who’s visiting.  Now that I think about it, it’s about as enticing as junior high school homework assignment.  Unless there is something I’m hankering to write about just to get it off my chest, blogging has lately become a rare choice.  Apparently, what I’m after is a more lively connection and engagement with the world via online resources.  Hey, it only makes sense, since I live in the middle of nowhere.

Truth is, blogging is simply not as much fun for me as jumping in the chaotic fray of Twitter and Facebook, especially.  FriendFeed is cool, though it hasn’t really grabbed me as of yet.  LinkedIn has been excellent to keep in touch with professional contacts, but again, not quite as enticing on a daily basis.

In my sphere of social networks online I can connect with colleagues, friends, and family (and interesting strangers) all over the world in short order.  I’ve gotten back in touch with many high school classmates, former coworkers, and faraway relatives, and been able to enjoy their updates and pictures and even videos (For free.  Bite me, Classmates.com).

My mom and my daughter are both active on Facebook.  Yep, three generations.  My daughter is also pregnant with her first child, due this summer.  Will we soon have four Facebook generations?  Hah!  Hey, who knows what the brave new world of online socializing has in store for us.  My mom and uncle are also on Twitter now, which I think is totally awesome.

Twitter just got even more fun after I installed the Twitter client twhirl.  twhirl allows me to monitor the twitterverse in a small window on my desktop in close to real time, rather than manually following and refreshing the feed in a Firefox tab.  Just this evening, I read a tweet (the rather charming term for a Twitter entry) by a Seattle journalist announcing that it was snowing again.  I quickly IM’d my daughter, who lives in Seattle, and we had this hilarious exchange:

January 4  6:33:39 PM Holly: you got snow?
January 4  6:33:51 PM Tasha: snow???
January 4  6:33:56 PM Tasha: *looks outside*
January 4  6:34:05 PM Holly: gma’s got snow
January 4  6:34:21 PM Tasha: OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE IT
January 4  6:34:44 PM Holly: IS IT????!!!
January 4  6:35:20 PM Tasha: There’s an inch
January 4  6:35:23 PM Tasha: what the HECK

That kid cracks me up.  To be fair, she had been resting this afternoon, being a very sleepy pregnant person, but still.  I thought it was pretty cute and funny, and also interesting to note how fast news travels in this new world of online information sharing.

Now, if we can just upgrade the internet service here in our mountain hideaway from satellite (terrible latency issue and a tight bandwidth limit) to a fast, robust system based on Planet Earth, I’d be all over Skype video-calling and even more connected.  I’m sure my baby nephew in San Diego would enjoy having his auntie read him stories, for example.  Ah well, we’re keeping an eye out for developments in rural internet service, too.

Bottom line, I know I’ve said a couple times I’d blog more, but I think maybe I was lying.  At least for now.  I might get a wild hair and blog about some things, but till then you can catch up with what I’m really up to via my accounts on Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  You’ll need accounts yourself to see the good stuff.

See you in the social internetosphere!