I'm gonna add my tuppence to the idea of the internet purge started, as usual, by Alex Day.
But this isn't really directed at him. I know Alex quite well and as such I'm pretty much unshockable with regards to these things that he does... And if you want my opinion on what in his brain makes him do them we'll be here all day.
I'm going to look at it the other way... From the purger's perspective.
A brief mention of non youtube sites - twitter I would never delete because it's too useful as a promotional tool. I might unfollow a few people, but more likely I'll just miss some updates from everyone. Twitter is very in the now... If I don't see something within the first half hour it's off the first page. Now I could track back and make sure I see everything, but there's no need. I'll just look at the first page and my @replies... If something is important then it will be replied to me or sent via a different medium.
Dailybooth has no real use, but it doesn't take up much time either, and I do like having my latest picture here on my blog... That's kinda replaced the in-blog pictures I had for a while. So while I've given up taking pictures daily (though I never really intended to see it through) I'm keeping it for now.
Facebook is my only private website. Everything else I accept everyone to, but it's pretty much the only link I have to a lot of old friends. I doubt I'll ever delete it, even if I stop using it.
Myspace is basically essential for a band. I only go on there to accept friends requests and answer stuff, but I can't get rid of it.
Ok, so youtube. I used to watch every video in my sub box. I don't anymore... So I suppose I do have too many subscriptions and I may cut them back. But for me there are two types of subscription... There are those that are purely for entertainment. Channels like 'College Humour' which I watch because it's funny - I don't know them, I don't communicate with them, it may as well be on TV. I could get rid of these channels as easily as I could stop watching TV (Heroes and 24 aside - pretty easy!)
The other type of subscription would be those channels that belong to friends. This is different, because although I do get a similar enjoyment out of the videos (and when it comes to youtube friends I almost inevitably do enjoy their videos, as you tend to start talking to people because of that), I also care about their videos. Whether they're talking about something that's important to them, or showing their latest creation, be it song/artwork/whatever... I want to know because it's a friend.
Little side note example: I lived in Liverpool for three years. During this time I lived with a few people who were part of a band. Over the three years I went to literally hundreds of their gigs. This could be considered a huge waste of time... Imagine the hours I clocked up listening to them play, the things I could have done in all that time! If I'd used it to work and revise I'd easily have first class degree right now. But I definitely wouldn't be as close to them, and I wouldn't even know a lot of people who I now consider friends. I'll take that and a 2.1 any day!
Now, they aren't total bastards. If I hadn't gone to a single gig they wouldn't have denied me friendship... It's just as they were friends I wanted to go and support them (and have fun, make no mistake I loved every minute) and so we became closer friends due to spending more time together and because of the fact that I cared about them. It works both ways obviously - they were supportive of me, hell I practically became part of their family I was round their house so much.. I had a toothbrush there!
The point is part of friendship is supporting people in whatever it is they do. It's not necessary, but it brings people closer. So, there are some people whose videos I could not stop watching because I consider them friends and that is their creative outlet. If I can't give them a couple of minutes every week or two then then that friendship obviously isn't worth very much to me.
There, that's what I think. Please note as I said at the beginning, this isn't about Alex - this is how I feel about it as a possible purger, I know Alex thinks differently and that's fine. My only problem with his purge is that I probably won't be in contact with him much any more... I don't really think to email people and that's pretty much the only option left.
If you have any thoughts feel free to share.
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10 comments:
I wholly agree with you.
Friendships are deeper than just a simple email or text to let them know you're alive. It's about supporting their work, being a critic of their art and simply appreciating their efforts because you know it would mean a lot to them.
Though I don't use Dailybooth or Facebook, I think networking sites are useful for being in contact with those who we don't always text/email but we wouldn't like to completely erase them from our lives.
Purging yourself from internet sites and making yourself exclusively available via email/text is fine, but it's a little callous to just unsubscribe from friends, it's like you're so cold and indifferent to their efforts and hard work.
I dunno- this is just my two pennies worth.
I wrote something very similar on Alex' latest video. It's one thing that "friendships usually don't require reading", but I thought he might just be genuinely interested in what his friends are doing, what kinds of videos they make.
It shouldn't be a prerequisite, but I just thought he would care about that. Maybe he'll come back after a first wave of purging...
You've really summed up everything that I would possibly want to say, although perhaps it is a different in my situation because I've got things like exams at the moment, and therefore the internet poses as a big problem. However, I've realised that instead of seeing the internet as the problem, it's my self control that's the problem.
I wouldn't ever get rid of anything, perhaps temporarily give my password to someone else if I really couldn't focus on my work, but I think you're right about the uses of the websites. I've set them up because they interest me, and I am on them all the time. Without them, my contact with some people would be compeletely cut off.
I think purging yourself from every networking site is perhaps a bit extreme- but, different for everyone.
Well done for what you've said Daveface. Wow, long Beth comment. <33
You pretty much said everything I wanted to about it and I know that wasn't about Alex but he seems to be missing the point a bit. He's all about the community but he's kindof cutting himself off from it. He says if anything major happens he'll know about it but friendships are about every day things innit?
I'm not gonna suddenly decide I need to stop doing things cause they take up my time or aren't completely vital.
I didn't know where you were talking about but clearly it was about nerimon, so I went to his youtube page and watched his latest video.
(yeah, I've unsubscribed to him a while ago, because I didn't agree with his opinions and I don't like VEDA.)
I agree with you in every single point you say. You seem like a good friend. I wish my friends were more like that.
I think I've covered all my thoughts on this topic in my blog already, so I'll not bother repeating them xD
Just thought I'd comment to let you know I'd read this ^_^
Oh, one thing I have noticed today though, is that I've been losing quite a few subscribers... I'm guessing it's from people seeing Alex's latest veda video and deciding to go on a little internet purge of their own, which sucks, but ahhh well xD
Thats the only reason I had trouble with stopping dailybooth too.. I like the daily picture showing up on my blog. xD
I think a lot of people probably read it on google readers or something anyway though, so the effort is wasted.
I feel the same way about twitter and myspace, also. They're useful tools.
JOHNNY I LOST SUBS TOO! Let's kill him.
Your appreciation of the meaning of friendships is very wise... often when all else fails, the bonds you have with real friends are the only thing left. If it takes Facebook or whatever to keep those bonds alive, its worth it.
Neri.. who? ^___^
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