Hi again

In two days, this blog turns eight. If this blog were a human child, it would be in second grade. Or maybe third grade, if it was a fast learner.

I've only posted two other times this year. And that is a pretty accurate summary of my life. There's not a lot going on that's worth writing about - at least not from my perspective.

I have noticed a social media usage pattern lately. Well, not lately, but I guess it's mostly just occurring to me now.

Back when I used IRC, there was a beginning, middle, and end to my usage. And with each of those stages came a corresponding number of my friends who also used it. In the beginning, there were a good number of people there, but not a ton. The middle featured a ton of people I knew, all in one place, all chatting. Eventually, though, it dwindled down to just a handful.

Then I moved to ICQ. The same thing happened - a few people, a ton of people, a handful, and then none whatsoever.

There was a brief flirtation with Yahoo Messenger due to Truman's IT policies, which prohibited ICQ due to a security issue. Same thing - a few people, a bunch of people, and then no one.

Then came AOL Instant Messenger (a.k.a., AIM) - the same thing. A few people, a metric crap load of people, and now there are none. I mean, I'm sure they're out there, but they're not people I know.

Then there was MySpace. Granted, this was a whole new animal - social networking, not just chatting. The same thing happened. My network was small, then ridiculously large (about 300 people at one point, with maybe 1/2 of them posting regularly), and then it fizzled out. Now it's a digital ghost town, inhabited only by those who can only be described as marginally civilized. You know, that junkie cousin everyone has, whose profile is filled with animated gifs of marijuana leaves and spam comments from shitty rappers. Note: if you don't have a cousin like that, look in the mirror. You ARE that cousin. Although if you've read this far, I'm going to go ahead and assume you're not that person. Myspace is not a place inhabited by those with long attention spans.

Oh, wait - I had Friendster for like a month before I got on MySpace. I totally forgot about that. Ha. Apparently it's still big in Asia? Who knows? Who cares.

Chatting didn't go away, though. Google Talk has had a much longer lifespan, I have to admit. I've been using it for a good while. Ever since it came out, honestly. Of course, this started out more slowly than other forms of communication. And it never had huge numbers, but they were solid. I'd easily have 15 people online at any given time. But then people just stopped coming online so much. Or maybe they got sick of me and went to invisible mode. Or blocked me. Right now, though, I see five people online. They're the same five people as always. I think they're probably like me - signed in through their phones. I only chat with a handful of people on there anymore.

Now Facebook is doing the same thing. I have 536 "friends" on there. I had 537 this morning. I must have pissed someone off. Or, more likely, someone purged their contacts, like I do on occasion. Or maybe they just deleted their account entirely. Whatever. Doesn't matter. The phenomenon remains intact - fewer people are updating their statuses. Granted, there are still a ton of people updating their stuff. Just not as many. I've seen more than a few "friends" say they needed a break from Facebook. Or that they were just giving it up entirely. Bully for them.

So, this whole Google+ thing - is anyone doing it? I have it. I don't really use it, though.

Of course, that's what I said when I first joined Facebook. And Myspace. And AIM. Etc.

So, our means of communicating with one another - are they only as good as their last iteration? IRC and ICQ barely evolved at all. Friendster lost ground when MySpace took what they were doing and did it better. And then Facebook totally blew MySpace out of the water. I think Facebook's dominance can be credited to the same force that made Cartman's theme park so popular in South Park - he only let a few people in. Before opening the gates to everyone, Facebook was for college kids only. And then it opened the gates a little wider for faculty and staff. That's how I got in. Then they started letting high schoolers in. And now any old carbon blob with an email address can join. Now nearly 10% of the planet is on Facebook.

So, will Google+ leave Facebook in the dust?

And what about us bloggers? Even those of us who have kept a domain for eight years and may only update a handful of times in any given 12 month span, and who probably have zero readers anyway... What about us?

I guess I'll just have to start tweeting about everything.

Did anyone actually read this far? Leave a comment if you did.