mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-11-06 07:50 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-11-06 07:50 pm
Entry tags:
Social media stuff...
The whole twitter implosion thing definitely has me in that... "feeling some kind of way" way.
Mainly I think it's bringing up memories of the the exodus from LJ, which was a slow, miserable thing as opposed to the comparative apocalypse of *gestures broadly at twitter* all that.
I don't like twitter, and I never really used it. I've had I think two accounts on there, one from college, one from about a year or two ago, both of which I created when it felt like I "should" have a twitter. I created the accounts, followed a bunch of creators I liked, and then... never used them again after that. (And I resent the emails I get about so-and-so tweeting something, because they're almost always "some conservative politician you hate and have never followed or interacted with tweeted..." and I do not want to have them in my inbox at all, thanks.)
I *have* unfortunately seen how horrifically toxic twitter can be as a space, how the deliberate short-form format absolutely destroys any chance for nuance, yet how vitriolic assholes pile on to literally anything for the sin of not encapsulating the totality of human experience in a single tweet. How anger and outrage (even manufactured) is the fastest way to get attention and clout. How it's become a requirement to be in the publishing industry, to the point that many pro authors have talked about how their twitter presence is mandated in their author contracts. (Even when they find no enjoyment in it, even when it's detrimental to their mental health.) That's like... a whole other pile of shit.
But I know that even though I haven't ever gotten much use or enjoyment out of twitter, there are a lot of people who HAVE. And for whom that IS their community. I know that large swaths of fandom were already there, and then more decamped to twitter when the porn ban happened on tumblr. I know that it's where a LOT of writers and artists, fan and pro, do their networking and share their work. I don't *get* why anyone would want to do that, because the way twitter works seems like it would be the worst for sharing works that you want anyone to actually have a chance to find for more than a day, but I don't have to get it!
Watching a community you're invested in and care about crumble sucks. So despite my schadenfreude at watching Muskrat fuck everything up with his enormous ego... I AM sorry to watch people struggle with the idea of losing touch with people they care about and communities they enjoy and want to remain a part of.
(While I think the world, particularly the sphere of social media, may be better without twitter, or with twitter having a reduction in the power it's had, it's still a bummer for the people impacted now.)
I remember losing LJ as the home of fandom. I wasn't ever SUPER active in fandom comms, though I followed several and read peoples' discussions. I enjoyed that time period of fandom-as-an-entity a lot.
Prior to that, I'd been a fandom spectator (and occasional writer of very bad fic on ff.net), and I do think fondly on the the era of individual fansites/character shrines/personal fic archives/etc. But that era didn't feel like something I could be a part of in the same way that LJ allowed for. It might have been different if I'd been a few years older.
Now, a lot of my love for LJ is personal, the result of the way timing synced up. Late high school and college were the best time for me to be excited for fandom, to have small amounts of disposable income, to not yet have a 40-hour-per-week job...
I don't quite have the "I met all my best friends through LJ fandom, and now we live together/visit three times a year/etc." stories that some people do, particularly people who were maybe a few years older than me at the time.
Butscarlipswolfwife and I have been friends for a damn long time having met through fandom despite never actually sharing a fandom.
And while he's never cared for or been a part of fandom, LJ IS how I met Alex, and we've been together 13 and a half years now.
I also know that nostalgia goggles are powerful - there was drama and nastiness that happened on LJ, and I know it wasn't a complete fandom utopia either, particularly when things went bad with the site itself. Strikethrough happened, and people started leaving. Things got worse and worse as it changed hands.
I was reluctant to leave (and I seem to remember even bristling a bit at people who at the time moved to DW!) I eventually got a tumblr, and while I know that was where a lot of fandom moved (and was also where fandom had separately gained traction as a broad community among people who'd never used LJ), I didn't really find a sense of fandom community there.
The format on LJ was one that was much more conducive to what I think of as community, probably because it *created* (as in, created in my head) the system that to me means community. It's what I still love about DW, and it's what every other "home of fandom" doesn't quite capture for me.
So while the twitter thing doesn't really personally upset me (almost the opposite on the grand scale), I do remember how much it sucks feeling uprooted, and that part does suck.
Mainly I think it's bringing up memories of the the exodus from LJ, which was a slow, miserable thing as opposed to the comparative apocalypse of *gestures broadly at twitter* all that.
I don't like twitter, and I never really used it. I've had I think two accounts on there, one from college, one from about a year or two ago, both of which I created when it felt like I "should" have a twitter. I created the accounts, followed a bunch of creators I liked, and then... never used them again after that. (And I resent the emails I get about so-and-so tweeting something, because they're almost always "some conservative politician you hate and have never followed or interacted with tweeted..." and I do not want to have them in my inbox at all, thanks.)
I *have* unfortunately seen how horrifically toxic twitter can be as a space, how the deliberate short-form format absolutely destroys any chance for nuance, yet how vitriolic assholes pile on to literally anything for the sin of not encapsulating the totality of human experience in a single tweet. How anger and outrage (even manufactured) is the fastest way to get attention and clout. How it's become a requirement to be in the publishing industry, to the point that many pro authors have talked about how their twitter presence is mandated in their author contracts. (Even when they find no enjoyment in it, even when it's detrimental to their mental health.) That's like... a whole other pile of shit.
But I know that even though I haven't ever gotten much use or enjoyment out of twitter, there are a lot of people who HAVE. And for whom that IS their community. I know that large swaths of fandom were already there, and then more decamped to twitter when the porn ban happened on tumblr. I know that it's where a LOT of writers and artists, fan and pro, do their networking and share their work. I don't *get* why anyone would want to do that, because the way twitter works seems like it would be the worst for sharing works that you want anyone to actually have a chance to find for more than a day, but I don't have to get it!
Watching a community you're invested in and care about crumble sucks. So despite my schadenfreude at watching Muskrat fuck everything up with his enormous ego... I AM sorry to watch people struggle with the idea of losing touch with people they care about and communities they enjoy and want to remain a part of.
(While I think the world, particularly the sphere of social media, may be better without twitter, or with twitter having a reduction in the power it's had, it's still a bummer for the people impacted now.)
I remember losing LJ as the home of fandom. I wasn't ever SUPER active in fandom comms, though I followed several and read peoples' discussions. I enjoyed that time period of fandom-as-an-entity a lot.
Prior to that, I'd been a fandom spectator (and occasional writer of very bad fic on ff.net), and I do think fondly on the the era of individual fansites/character shrines/personal fic archives/etc. But that era didn't feel like something I could be a part of in the same way that LJ allowed for. It might have been different if I'd been a few years older.
Now, a lot of my love for LJ is personal, the result of the way timing synced up. Late high school and college were the best time for me to be excited for fandom, to have small amounts of disposable income, to not yet have a 40-hour-per-week job...
I don't quite have the "I met all my best friends through LJ fandom, and now we live together/visit three times a year/etc." stories that some people do, particularly people who were maybe a few years older than me at the time.
But
scarlipswolfwife and I have been friends for a damn long time having met through fandom despite never actually sharing a fandom. And while he's never cared for or been a part of fandom, LJ IS how I met Alex, and we've been together 13 and a half years now.
I also know that nostalgia goggles are powerful - there was drama and nastiness that happened on LJ, and I know it wasn't a complete fandom utopia either, particularly when things went bad with the site itself. Strikethrough happened, and people started leaving. Things got worse and worse as it changed hands.
I was reluctant to leave (and I seem to remember even bristling a bit at people who at the time moved to DW!) I eventually got a tumblr, and while I know that was where a lot of fandom moved (and was also where fandom had separately gained traction as a broad community among people who'd never used LJ), I didn't really find a sense of fandom community there.
The format on LJ was one that was much more conducive to what I think of as community, probably because it *created* (as in, created in my head) the system that to me means community. It's what I still love about DW, and it's what every other "home of fandom" doesn't quite capture for me.
So while the twitter thing doesn't really personally upset me (almost the opposite on the grand scale), I do remember how much it sucks feeling uprooted, and that part does suck.
no subject
LJ definitely had its fair share of toxicity, as nostalgic as I am for it. And I think you're right - while the toxicity there was much less than modern socmed, there were already quite a lot of hints of the things that have simply been magnified now. I think that's why I feel so bad for the people being forcibly uprooted from Twitter now - it was a toxic space that I think we're better without... but that isn't much comfort to the people losing a space they'd cultivated and connected on.
I do hope more people join DW. I always hope that. I think it's a better format that's less prone to the "hot takes" and vitriol of twitter, one that allows for more personal, ongoing communication with people in a way that isn't as public as reblogs/twitter back-and-forths/talking in a discord channel, while also not requiring the conversations happen in private via DM. It's better for community building and potentially finding some new person that you'd be interested in knowing better.
Double-edged sword in that it requires more personal effort to find and make those connections though, and that I see a surprising number of younger people talk about how the site seems impossibly confusing.
Older fans (the target DW audience) are broadly more chill (though the ones that suck still suck bad), and younger folks who are willing to put in some effort to figure out how to use the site also self-selects for a hopefully better crowd.
BUT it also means that a lot of people WON'T be willing to put in the effort required, and it's hard to get the kind of community engagement people are looking for without newer and younger people ever joining.
(Though I'll take quiet-but-good over active-but-toxic any day.)