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cellioA friend asked me about LJ last night. She commented that she's missing out on the grapevine by not reading it.
In thinking about it, though, I don't think that's really true. She said, for instance, that she wouldn't have known about the power surge taking out a bunch of our electronics if she hadn't been talking to an LJ friend, but that's not true. It's just that I hadn't seen her since then; I would have told her tonight if it hasn't come up otherwise, but this wasn't important enough to send email about.
Email is push technology. It's not as "push" as a phone call, but it's much more active than posting in an LJ, which is "pull". If you want to read it you do; if you don't; you don't have to. With email (I mean the personal sort, not mailing lists and spam), there is an expectation of a reply and perhaps a dialogue. Email says "you should read this"; LJ posts say "feel free to read this". It's a big difference.
There are some things that I'm posting on LJ that would have otherwise rated email. Some of my religious stuff would have gone out to select people in email (though written differently). Some of it still does, actually. I definitely would have sent out email to selected friends with the "where should I buy a computer?" question. There are probably others. The last joke I posted here I also sent via email to some people.
I do sometimes wish that my LJ friends wouldn't say "I saw that in your LJ" in front of non-LJ friends, because it probably makes them feel excluded. Oddly, saying "I saw your post on rec.arts.comics about X" doesn't cause quite the same reaction; I wonder if it's just that LJ doesn't have the penetration that Usenet has -- or had back when such a statement from me would have actually been accurate.
In thinking about it, though, I don't think that's really true. She said, for instance, that she wouldn't have known about the power surge taking out a bunch of our electronics if she hadn't been talking to an LJ friend, but that's not true. It's just that I hadn't seen her since then; I would have told her tonight if it hasn't come up otherwise, but this wasn't important enough to send email about.
Email is push technology. It's not as "push" as a phone call, but it's much more active than posting in an LJ, which is "pull". If you want to read it you do; if you don't; you don't have to. With email (I mean the personal sort, not mailing lists and spam), there is an expectation of a reply and perhaps a dialogue. Email says "you should read this"; LJ posts say "feel free to read this". It's a big difference.
There are some things that I'm posting on LJ that would have otherwise rated email. Some of my religious stuff would have gone out to select people in email (though written differently). Some of it still does, actually. I definitely would have sent out email to selected friends with the "where should I buy a computer?" question. There are probably others. The last joke I posted here I also sent via email to some people.
I do sometimes wish that my LJ friends wouldn't say "I saw that in your LJ" in front of non-LJ friends, because it probably makes them feel excluded. Oddly, saying "I saw your post on rec.arts.comics about X" doesn't cause quite the same reaction; I wonder if it's just that LJ doesn't have the penetration that Usenet has -- or had back when such a statement from me would have actually been accurate.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-06-11 05:02 pm (UTC)Email says "you should read this"; LJ posts say "feel free to read this". It's a big difference.
Yes! I often feel guilty when I don't respond to an E-mail, but what if there isn't anything that I really have to add? The New York Times had a piece on this a few Thursdays ago (titled "The long goodbye", I think) about how some E-mail conversations just go on and on... awkardly. Of course, there's the temptation to do the same thing in LJ, partly to get in the last word, and partly just to be friendly, etc.
I send out two types of E-mail. Every once in a while, I get the urge to write a mass mailing (called, unsurprisingly, "The Goljerp Gazette"). This goes out to about 35 people or so, and I usually try to make it funny, interesting, and a spark for more personal E-mail (which, of course, is the second type). I actually put a fair bit of effort into the Gazettes, and their frequency seems to have some sort of inverse relationship with how stressed I am. (I wrote lots of them in Grad school).
On the other hand, I feel more free to sort of do stream-of-consciousness stuff with LJ... although it is annoying that my ISP tends to disconnect me when I'm writing a particularly long entry (because I'm not actively using the connection) (yes, I still have just a modem).
(no subject)
Date: 2002-06-11 07:19 pm (UTC)Client problems: have you considered using a text editor to compose your entries? You can then just paste them into the LJ form, and if the connection drops yo haven't lost anything.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-06-11 08:17 pm (UTC)My problem isn't losing entries; it's that after I've spent 15 minutes working on an entry, I'm annoyed when I can't post it, but have to dial up again just to send it off. Also, while I can afford the extra 10.3 cents Verizon will charge me, but I hate the idea of giving them more money than I absolutely have to...