The death of blog? Hoping not....
Some time back, when Ravelry first appeared and many crafters (primarily knit and crochet) began joining, people wondered if Ravelry would kill off blogs/blogging.
Well, first of all, there are many types of blogs - they aren't just on the topics of knit and crochet. So, I really doubt that blogs are/were in any danger from Ravelry. Honestly, I use Rav. as a source, and once the novelty of it wore off, I have fallen even farther behind in my updates to my page over there. (for those who haven't found it yet, it is http://www.ravelry.com and is free to join up, and I'm "Catlady2" at Ravelry).
Considering that I am attempting to spend less time on the computer, and that I am not a great typist, I must confess that I've been neglecting my blog something fierce.... and it isn't Ravelry's fault... In fact, I have some days where I only skim the newest topics in a few of the groups/forums there... other days, I barely do that.
What is causing my blog to languish? *sigh*... The double edged sword of Facebook.
I once tried out FB, many years ago, because a good number of my online email group friends had "facebook pages". Since signing up for FB required giving more info than I was comfortable with at the time, I used an alias (the name I type in when I play computer games online - my alter ego and former pet) and my gmail account (rats, shouldn't have used that one), and looked around. Didn't see anything that impressed me, so I simply forgot about it....
Well, a couple years ago, my son had joined FB, and found some relatives that we'd lost touch with over the years. He kept bugging me to join, and "meet" these people again. So, I did - only, like I said, I'd forgotten about the "dummy" account. Well, I did get in touch with relatives, which I am grateful for. And, I did re-establish contact with email friends via FB as well as the email groups... and between my son and my friends, I was introduced to FB games....
Interestingly, there is a cross-over between FB and Ravelry - many crafters are as hooked on (pun not really intended, but apropos) some of the FB games as I am. And, since some of them require a certain amount of teamwork between "friends" and "neighbours".... *sigh*. Mind you, I've met several people who I now consider good friends, that I likely wouldn't have gotten to know, had it not been for the mutual interests discovered.
FB has indeed become a double edged sword - a lot of good has come from joining, but so has a lot of time-sucking activity.
Especially when it suddenly occurred to me that I still had a "dummy" account, and could friend myself and use it to advance the game play... a common occurrence by other gamers, too. And, more recently, I was convinced to start up a FB page for my dog - yet another game chance....
Yes, I have a problem. I am addicted to at least one FB game. I do play a few of the others, off and on, but my biggest weakness is called Frontierville. Every time I start to get a little bored, and think I can wean myself off of it, they (the designers of the game) come out with a new challenge or a new animal or building or crop or something...and I have to keep going for just one more.... Right now, I'm nearly done the pet shop, so I can buy a dog - - they better be coming out with cats, too - not that I need more excuses to keep hanging out on FB instead of doing some real life things.
I recently heard/read something about the reason for these games being so addictive: they play into people's need to be successful at something, to bolster the self-esteem. Makes sense to me - right now, I've been feeling so down and depressed, that getting that sense of achievement when I complete a mission and receive the reward is a good thing. Sometimes, though, there are glitches in the system, and the challenges don't credit properly, or something - for example, I needed to react to something 20 times, but had no control over the something, only my reaction. Well, the something didn't happen very often, and it took me over two weeks to accomplish it. Those are the times that I think I could finally just stop playing - I get too bored... But, then, it gets fixed, or something else comes up, and I just keep going back for more punishment...
So, basically - I need to figure out a better way to get out of this depression, and/or raise my self-esteem, so that I can face the real world again and stop hiding in my computer.... Mind you, things could be worse - at least I'm only turning to the computer and cyber imaginary world of Frontier Ville instead of something totally destructive like drugs or alcohol....
Well, first of all, there are many types of blogs - they aren't just on the topics of knit and crochet. So, I really doubt that blogs are/were in any danger from Ravelry. Honestly, I use Rav. as a source, and once the novelty of it wore off, I have fallen even farther behind in my updates to my page over there. (for those who haven't found it yet, it is http://www.ravelry.com and is free to join up, and I'm "Catlady2" at Ravelry).
Considering that I am attempting to spend less time on the computer, and that I am not a great typist, I must confess that I've been neglecting my blog something fierce.... and it isn't Ravelry's fault... In fact, I have some days where I only skim the newest topics in a few of the groups/forums there... other days, I barely do that.
What is causing my blog to languish? *sigh*... The double edged sword of Facebook.
I once tried out FB, many years ago, because a good number of my online email group friends had "facebook pages". Since signing up for FB required giving more info than I was comfortable with at the time, I used an alias (the name I type in when I play computer games online - my alter ego and former pet) and my gmail account (rats, shouldn't have used that one), and looked around. Didn't see anything that impressed me, so I simply forgot about it....
Well, a couple years ago, my son had joined FB, and found some relatives that we'd lost touch with over the years. He kept bugging me to join, and "meet" these people again. So, I did - only, like I said, I'd forgotten about the "dummy" account. Well, I did get in touch with relatives, which I am grateful for. And, I did re-establish contact with email friends via FB as well as the email groups... and between my son and my friends, I was introduced to FB games....
Interestingly, there is a cross-over between FB and Ravelry - many crafters are as hooked on (pun not really intended, but apropos) some of the FB games as I am. And, since some of them require a certain amount of teamwork between "friends" and "neighbours".... *sigh*. Mind you, I've met several people who I now consider good friends, that I likely wouldn't have gotten to know, had it not been for the mutual interests discovered.
FB has indeed become a double edged sword - a lot of good has come from joining, but so has a lot of time-sucking activity.
Especially when it suddenly occurred to me that I still had a "dummy" account, and could friend myself and use it to advance the game play... a common occurrence by other gamers, too. And, more recently, I was convinced to start up a FB page for my dog - yet another game chance....
Yes, I have a problem. I am addicted to at least one FB game. I do play a few of the others, off and on, but my biggest weakness is called Frontierville. Every time I start to get a little bored, and think I can wean myself off of it, they (the designers of the game) come out with a new challenge or a new animal or building or crop or something...and I have to keep going for just one more.... Right now, I'm nearly done the pet shop, so I can buy a dog - - they better be coming out with cats, too - not that I need more excuses to keep hanging out on FB instead of doing some real life things.
I recently heard/read something about the reason for these games being so addictive: they play into people's need to be successful at something, to bolster the self-esteem. Makes sense to me - right now, I've been feeling so down and depressed, that getting that sense of achievement when I complete a mission and receive the reward is a good thing. Sometimes, though, there are glitches in the system, and the challenges don't credit properly, or something - for example, I needed to react to something 20 times, but had no control over the something, only my reaction. Well, the something didn't happen very often, and it took me over two weeks to accomplish it. Those are the times that I think I could finally just stop playing - I get too bored... But, then, it gets fixed, or something else comes up, and I just keep going back for more punishment...
So, basically - I need to figure out a better way to get out of this depression, and/or raise my self-esteem, so that I can face the real world again and stop hiding in my computer.... Mind you, things could be worse - at least I'm only turning to the computer and cyber imaginary world of Frontier Ville instead of something totally destructive like drugs or alcohol....
posted by Catlady @ 1:30 p.m.
1 Comments:
At 9:33 p.m.,
Bogglepated said…
Oh dear. I remember when I finally had to quit WoW. It was so hard, and sometimes I still get "bored". Farmville and its spin-offs were the only thing that really tempted me to join FB, and I'm so glad I never gave in, now!
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