Author: Jaf

Law, libraries, books, crafts, and general geekery.

Different Worlds


I love my social media: blog-hopping, forum-chatting, IM-ing…yet there’s a large number of my friends who don’t feature on any of these. They’re not technologically averse, these technologies just don’t fit easily into their lives.

Take one friend for example: she works part-time, has two small children, and a busy family life. She’s got no spare time to spend on forums and blogs…she’d rather just pick up the phone and call me, or send a text! She misses out on little bits of my life that others don’t…my random thoughts and recent events are often posted on my personal blog, and online friends read that, so when I actually talk to them in person, they’re often quite aware of what’s going on in my life. Non-online friends aren’t, and sometimes I almost resent having to tell them about my life, as I feel I’ve already done that ‘work’ on my blog.

I wonder if, as I get more web-based in my social interactions, these friends will continue to be close friends, or whether something has to give? Will it be their lack of online presence, or will I be cutting my online activity down?

Actually, I think I’m already beginning to cut down my online activity: time with friends and family is beginning to win out against wandering the web…my time online’s becoming more focussed, and I’m becoming more disciplined about where I want to spend my time….MySpace is almost never visited, Bebo very infrequently…blog reading / posting time’s perhaps increasing, I think in response…if my friends blog, I’ll read it…but I don’t necessarily want to spend time reading the minutae of their recent activity on a social networking site, I just don’t feel it’s relevant any more.

Ohhh, I’m so backward!!!

Silent Blogger!

I still exist, have just launched into a frantic and concerted effort to pull my portfolio together for Chartership, so all other activities are on hold, and that includes commenting on or posting to blogs…although it doesn’t include reading them, so I’m still busily reading, just not visibly ‘active’.

I’ve been having fun compiling my portfolio on a Peanut Butter wiki, which has many advantages….and disadvantages! Overall, I think it’s helped me to organise and compile things far better, despite the many frustrations with formatting quirks between it and Word! Have written an article on the process of using it, which hopefully shall appear in some journal somewhere in the near future…

Now, all I have to do is have peeps read it, comment, redraft, and submit…and hope the Board pass it!