Web 2.0

Back on 10 December, I urged you to quit Facebook after they changed their privacy policy (and I quit myself). During the holidays, I ended my brief Tumblr career, deciding that having an in-between step filling the space between Twitter and my blog* just didn't make sense. Why post things on a website that doesn't even allow comments? Anyway, after canceling Facebook and Tumblr, I started to wonder about some other social-media-Web-2.0 type sites where I had accounts.

When I saw an article on Slashdot this morning (which I didn't read) titled, "[Some Guy] Rants Against The World Of Web 2.0," and a blurb on Lifehacker about the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, I thought, what am I doing with my life? My FriendFeed account was summarily terminated when I realized that it didn't do anything. RememberTheMilk was likewise eliminated, since I never actually used it.

I once asked (in a Tumblr post) what the difference was between Tumblr and Twitter. The best answer I got (ironically enough, through Facebook) was that Twitter had the venture capital to afford two vowels. But here's a quick breakdown of how things were working.

• Scenario 1: I post to my blog. This is sucked into FriendFeed and Facebook, then TwitterFeed pushes it to Twitter. No one reads anything longer than two sentences on Facebook, and anyone who actually cared to read my blog already had it in an RSS reader and didn't need three other places to find it. People who follow me on Twitter are annoyed that I tweeted spam.**
• Scenario 2: I post to Tumblr. This is also sucked into FriendFeed and Facebook, then Twitter Feed pushes it to Twitter. While many posts get comments on Facebook, those comments are no good to me since I'm not using Facebook anymore. Tumblr itself doesn't allow comments, and no one uses FriendFeed. People who follow me on Twitter are more annoyed that I tweeted more spam.

So a bunch of that is gone now. My Firefox bookmarks toolbar is much cleaner without Tumblr, FriendFeed, Facebook, TwitterFeed, or RememberTheMilk icons, and life feels so much simpler now that my social media binge is under control.***


* Twitter ≤ Tumblr < Blog. This holds true since anything that can be posted on Twitter can also be posted on Tumblr, and anything posted on Tumblr can also be posted on a blog. The main difference is that most blogging software or hosts include comments. Twitter and Tumblr do not. This means that anything worthy of commenting on should be blogged; otherwise, it should be Twittered. There is no in-between space.
** Self-Promoting Automatic Messages
*** This is meant to be half-joking/funny/ironic. Sheesh.