Feb
7

The Buzzing of Bees

Posted in blog, overload, social networking, tell me what's ahappening..., what's the buzz | 1 Comment
I was thinking the other day about the whole social networking thing – and yes, I did post a bit about the follower/not following issue a few weeks ago. (And it apparently hit a nerve because I had quite a few comments, so clearly it’s something that affects a lot of people.) But I took a look this morning at who I’m following this morning. Over 1700 people on Twitter. 745 friends on Facebook. Over 300 on Tumblr. I’ve sorta given up on Google Plus, but these numbers don’t include RSS feeds or blogs or  GetGlue or LinkedIn or FourSquare or the million mailing lists I’m on or any of those other places that I’ve somehow gotten ensnared with. And I guess it sort of rolls back to the “author needing to build a platform” thing. We follow some people because we find them interesting, or maybe hope for a… Read more
Jan
17

Following the Leader

Posted in blog, followers, metaphoric crap that is supposed to mean something deep but probably doesn't, social networking | 5 Comments
One of the things I’ve always found rather fascinating with social networking is how it seems to have moved from a simple format of interacting with people into a cyber-popularity contest. It’s all about how many followers you have…and the quality of who *you* are following. (Hmm. This person is following 40 people…but is being followed by 9000! They must be popular!) Quality, of course, being the operative term.  (And rather subjective, at that.) And there are so many choices, aren’t there? So many places to make connections that it often feels like a whirlpool of words and thoughts and opinions. Impossible to keep track of on a regular basis, never mind the people who continually change their user names or avatars or website titles. The other night, I got a new follower or two on my Tumblr. No big deal, and I didn’t think much of it. Less than… Read more