March 25, 2009
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The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most!
A busy month, March has been, so another marathon update, photos an’ all, is on its way. But this is just a quick, reflective update that my pulse is just too short to accommodate. A thought, a feeling I’ve had lately about Xanga I thought I’d share…
When I first signed up for Xanga it was largely to stay in touch with my friends from NUFS. Matt had a xanga and Sarven and I chose to set our own up so we had a way to converse and show each other what was going on in our lives. Our ranks swelled from their and now many of the NUFS Kids are Xanga-armed. It’s been good, for the most part. But lately…. I’ve really been missing those days. The days when Xanga felt like a hassle-free forum to interact with people with anything between 5 and 5000 miles between them. In an effort to be a more sophisticated blogger I found myself looking over the Featured Content, following threads, getting more actively involved in the Xanga Community. I have begun to wish I hadn’t.
Xanga is no longer just an open community for bloggers of all size and shape. It’s splintered off into Revelife, Healthkicker, Momaroo, Datingish, Lovelyish, Dollarish and any number of specialised-interest off-shoot communities all offering their thoughts and opinions on any topic that falls under their radar. Then there is the Featured Content which, a lot of the time, has no reason to be other than being occasionally controversial posers made by the same sect of Xanga-lebrities.
Basically… I am starting to dislike Xanga. Being on Xanga. I’m sick of the off-shoots and their tunnel-vision content being paraded across my screen when I sign in, of the Featured Content and its often-toxic ramblings. Whether I agree or disagree with what’s being said I’m tired of all the judgementalism, the spite, the name-calling, the ignorance, the intolerance and the bile. The thing is… I’m all for freedom of speech. I’m all for open debate. But when everyone has an opinion and barely any of the facts it gets severely depressing. Lose Faith In Humanity Depressing. Youtube Comments Depressing.
I have updated a grand total of 4 times this year. My first post was just a general “Happy New Year” one so I barely even count it. The reason; Xanga has started to make me feel sick. I have begun to fear signing in for concern over what new bit of Featured Crap-tent (hurhur) will flash up before I can hit moss_icon. I know, I know… I don’t have to read them but there is a certain curse in being both politically and socially aware and (somewhat) informed but being a sensitive, heart-on-sleeve, over-empathic INFP too.
Does anyone else wish they could get back to a simpler Xanga?
Peace. Love. Understanding. “I’m a suspect. I’m a traitor. I’m only here in body, visiting…”
Comments (22)
The simple solution: read your friends’ blogs and ignore the rest of the crap. I have never in my life used Xanga for anything other than NUFS-related business. I don’t think Xanga has really changed that much — it sounds like you’ve changed how you use it. Don’t like the content? Don’t read it! Xanga isn’t doing anything to you — it’s just people going about their own business, take it or leave it.
Sorry, not to be snotty, I just don’t get your logic. If it’s splintered off into any number of special interest off-shoot communities, then isn’t it by definition, and ever-increasingly “an open community for bloggers off all size and shape?” If you find there are lots of users writings that don’t interest you, it’s likely because it’s not really aimed at you, ne?
@hlcampbell - The problem is not that it doesn’t interest me, it’s that it DOES interest me, in a way. As I say in my last paragraph I’m torn between feeling the need to listen to other people’s opinions (those I agree with and disagree with) and debate things and my own over-sensitive nature. I know I just should ignore all the other crap out there but, like a guy who sees a car wreck, I’m just compelled to go over and take a peek when something, however unsavoury, catches my eye. I’m a debater who hates debate. An argumentative argument-hater. The problem is my own nature, really. I just wish I wouldn’t be tempted, baited, by all the junk I see when I sign in. I’m trying to just ignore it now but the damage has been done…
damn yes. wonder why I update even less than you do with far less meaningful content?
Dave – I agree with Holly. I only ever sign in to look at NUFS kids’ blogs. It IS still simple for me.
Cass – You update you LJ all the time. Maybe the solution is that everyone should move to LJ. It would certainly make things a lot simpler for me.
Yep, it’s still simple to me too, as Holly and Robin have said above… except I do enjoy looking at the lil’ blurbs for people’s updates on Fecal Content (had to one-up you there)… just to say… ‘Twats!’ *grin*
‘I tested my boyfriend and he failed.’ – ‘Twat!’ *glee*
‘Someone explain to me why she dumped me.’ – ‘Twat!’ *bliss*
‘Why I forgave my rapist.’ – ‘Twat!’
It really brightens up my morning. Come to think of it, calling that last one a twat may have been a bit controversial, but on that one I couldn’t resist and did in fact click on the link, and let me just say… Twat. If you’re raped and you feel like your whole life has been ruined by it, I say kill the bastard. Don’t cut yourself, use men, bla bla long list of self-sympathetic trash.
…
…
Dave, I may have just found a reason to agree with you after all.
@invisiblebalex - HAHAH that really brightened my day.
I’m with everyone else. I just don’t bother with that rubbish.
I very very rarely ever even see the front page. I set my Xanga homepage as a tab that opens whenever I open my browser. If you never see it, you’re not nearly as tempted. You could do the same. Just set your homepage, inbox, or subscription list as a homepage tab.
Half of everything online is rubbish anyway. Half of statistics are also made up on the spot.
In order to avoid “Dieted for weeks and still gained 3 pounds” and “Why are all the good men taken?” and other brainless Fecal Content (good one Balex), I never sign into xanga, I just wait for the email to come with who has updated and then go straight to their site. Thats also why I’m never the first post person (postman?).
I know how you feel looking at stuff and thinking how much I want to tell them to get over it or that their closed-minded bigotry is worth a do-mawashi-kaiten-geri to the face, but I resist the urge. It is difficult to resist though, as if I have Vader himself there reminding me. And if you give in to your anger, you could fall to the bleak blackness of the Troll-side. (I heard this term ‘Troll’ from someone and is about the extent of my internet vocabulary… I find it funny because when I read opinionated rubbish in forums I actually imagine a Troll from the monster manual sitting on the other end of the computer typing away and it kind of makes me fell better)
@the_greatest_pip - I didn’t know xanga had a front page
@sarven - apparently the term “trolling” is a derivation of the word “trawling” and has nothing to do with trolls. It if a person trolls, they are fishing for a response, hence: fishing -> trawling -> trolling
well that was certainly longer than what could fit in a pulse.
i also mourn the direction xanga has taken in moving from the open community where we can meet and interact with people we otherwise would have never come into contact with. i don’t entirely dislike where it is now, though. yeah, there’s a lot of crap and a lot of drama that happens, but it is still xanga, after all, and i’m still able to meet new people and keep up with the ones i’ve known for years. it may seem like introspection is suffering a slow death at the hands of zealots and tweens, and as much as i may not agree with many of the ideas that are shared, i still appreciate the fact that they can be shared. i guess what i mourn most is the shift in the definition of respect to whomever has the biggest gun our loudest mouth or who can send more people to hell. i say don’t stare at other people’s car wrecks. you can get enough of that by looking at mine.
@Robinsama - @invisiblebalex- @theender1 - Yeah, I figured the INTJ camp (Holly, Rob, Balex) would think this way. I also know I should just ignore it, not follow those links. But I just can’t seem to resist the pull of curiosity, of hearing a viewpoint I may not agree with, despite it just enraging me with it’s ignorance most of the time! I guess the real point of this post is to say I wish I could go back to before, when I didn’t access this stuff and remained in blissful ignorance of all the bile out there. That and wishing that people with opinions on everything and experience of nothing would shut the fuck up!
@the_greatest_pip - I do have it on a tab. The trouble is if I wanna jump to ill made knight I have to sign out and in again and then, then it catches me. I fear to look, yet I cannot turn away….
@sarven - The really banal stuff I couldn’t give a crap about. It’s the political or religious or personal stuff, stuff that deals with important issues and people’s lives, that really gets to me. People ranting on about stuff they have no idea about, often showing some very ugly sides to humanity. And yeah, I’d love to hit them with a 瞬獄殺 (lit. Instant Hell Murder; Akuma’s move from Street Fighter, where the screen goes black, he delivers 1000 deaths in one instant, and appears stood over his prone opponent, 天 on his back!)
@mercurialmusic - I too appreciate the ability for open discussion and freedom of speech. But it seems the stronger someone’s opinion, the weaker their facts. That seems to be true of half the stuff I see on here.
On the whole I’m just saddened and disturbed by the state of humanity, after checking some of this stuff out. I know for most of you Xanga is still just a way to stay in touch with friends and I’ve just found myself wishing that were all it was, period. But I feel the need, sometimes, to read what others say, to hear the opinions of unlike-minded people, just to broaden my own outlook. Problem is…. it’s horribly depressing when you see just how ignorant, selfish, intolerant, bigoted and self-absorbed some people are.
@Robinsama - That makes much more sense than meaning they are green, have regeneration 5 and fire vulnerability. Good explanation.
@moss_icon - fair enough – the important issues are usually important because they have so many view points (or the other way round), some more reasonable than others. I do also hate the idea that some people can support something they know so little about or base their facts on flawed evidence/experiences. I wonder if commenting to them would help change their narrow-minded opinions or instead make them defend them with more vigour? Do you actually ever post comments or just read the rubbish?
@sarven - I comment sometimes. Sometimes it’s not the posts themselves but the comments that depress me and I reply comment to them. The thing is I don’t like the idea of getting into these tiresome, drag-out, go-nowhere arguments with these people so sometimes I don’t. But at the same time I feel I need to have my say which is why I wish I’d never gone there in the first place cos….ARRRRGGHHH!!! See? This is how it is with me. I can’t just be like “I don’t care” about all the stuff that’s said. Man, I wish I could, but I do care. There was one time I had this string of comments going with some girl who just kept missing the point of everything I said and…. bloody annoying! I so wish I could just dismiss them like everyone else seems to. I’m trying to….
@moss_icon - Paradox, arrghh! I still think it is a good thing that you can’t dismiss these things and still take them to heart – your passion gives you strength!
i actually agree with you. I liked the simpler xanga myself.
Passion leads to the dark side.
That being said, I am the same for other things, but Blogging/Xanga.. I just force myself into state of mind that I cant be bothered reading ramblings and debates of people I dont know and that will have little or no impact on anyone<s lives other than maybe frustrating others, frustrating me, or killing arguments )I seem to be good at posting stuff, and then getting no replies, actively killing threads). So I just think like that and Dont do anything else except read friends posts and maybe reply.
That being said, I use Xanga as a tool, and not let it use me. I dont have premium-tiger-platinum-ultra-edition xanga. I just get feeds from my friends in my email when they update and read them. If I muster the energy to post, I just log in, go to my blog and post. I actually dont see any adds and stuff, just my log in box and then my menu, then my xanga page….
But yeah, do whatevers best for you. I noticed I live alot with the principle of ‘Iranai mono wo kiri suteru’.
Exceptions are food and games. I just go crazy over RPG, comuter games and good food.
I guess we all have our weaknesses, I guess yours might be present in Xanga.
Speaking of the simpler Xanga, I just noticed all the changes you made to your layout. I noticed the white X before but nothing else. You still wanting to do the banner you were talking about before?
Its hard to not care if you Jump into it and start reading everything. Its easier if you just dont go there.
And I’m not talking closing your eyes and pretending its not there, but an enlightened decision of deciding that its just not worth it.
Thats comming from me, the guy with slight OCD that has to finish every single sub-quest in an RPG even if hes not enjoying them, just because he wont be able to relax if hes not maxxed at everything possible.
I rule for not following my own advice (Although recently Ive been able to stop myself and just finish the damn game instead of playing for the extra 40 hours just to finish sunquests with no impact on the main storyline. But that takes alot of discipline for me to do still)
@the_greatest_pip - Yeah, I do. I wanna use it with this theme. My idea for it stands so we just need to ride a train together when I feel photographable….!
@ShinRaijin - Having Premium or Life really doesn’t affect anything. It’s more just my own desire to be an informed on people’s stances and hear other opinions and an irresistible urge to throw down my own arguments when someone says something misinformed or ignorant. Trouble is I just don’t like arguing and take everything to heart. Like I say, it’s a contradiction in my personality that causes me great strife which is why I wish I could just go back to the simpler days of NUFS Kids only xangaing, living in blissful ignorance of how toxic and intolerant so many out there are!
All you verbalize interferes with my brains, I weigh up therefore
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