Just a brief note, because I’ve been intending to sit and write for awhile – and have even started a few blog posts – but have later realized I needed to do a lot of editing. A few years ago, a friend of mine said to me, while mired deep in daily posts to LiveJournal, that signal/noise matters.
As I’ve become a professional (ha!) in IT, I have less interest in spending my free time at a computer. Also, I find my anxiety is worse when plugged in to the constant stream of Facebook. It’s disheartening for me to realize how many people have not only jumped ship from blogging in favor of Facebook, but that they are now using the medium of Facebook to place signal, but in a way that it can’t help but be drowned out by the noise.
My friend, I think, was pointing out to me at the time I was blogging multiple times daily, that it was easy to lose track of what I was trying to say when mired in the noise that was also buzzing in my head. It’s not that I didn’t have something important to say – it was just hard to hear. I catch snippets of notes that people post on FB, but am not in a position to read them, which means that they become lost when I later have the time and want to indulge.
I’ve grown to favor human interaction over computer interaction (except when it’s in the realms of customer service at work, when computer interaction (email) is more expedient in problem solving.)
There’s my unedited thoughts. Now it’s time for work!
Iron Head Jane 
As I’ve become a professional (ha!) in IT, I have less interest in spending my free time at a computer. Also, I find my anxiety is worse when plugged in to the constant stream of Facebook. It’s disheartening for me to realize how many people have not only jumped ship from blogging in favor of Facebook, but that they are now using the medium of Facebook to place signal, but in a way that it can’t help but be drowned out by the noise.
Oh, yes, indeedy. I don’t think Facebook has, or ever will be, designed to incorporate a high S/n ratio. I think its main purpose is to make superficial, light connections and to keep the attention spans short. The format favors games and memes over posts, partially because Zuckerberg seemingly created Facebook as a counterpoint to both MySpace and LiveJournal–it was a cleaner format than the former because it contained less content than the latter. I find that I can get a better S/n ratio from Twitter than Facebook, as there’s something about Twitter’s forced brevity that can inspire some creative comments from its users.
I also have less interest in computers or some elements of higher technology due to being in IT. Perhaps this industry just beats that out of us. Unfortunately for myself, I’m getting to the point of burning out as my work time is spent answering e-mails, most of which are less technical and more what I would consider to be pointless administrative paperwork. My free time has decreased, and while I do spend some of it in front of a computer, it’s more frippery than anything productive. I have a lot of photos that have stacked up, and yes, I’d like to get some of them taken care of in Lightroom, but that feels like work nowadays, hence why I have a hard time getting motivated to do so when I have free time. Bleah.