I find myself lately withdrawing more and more from the social aspects of the web these days.
Lately, I’ll visit a site, and something I read will prompt me to the point of nearly leaving a comment when I think to myself “I don’t really want to come back and participate in this dialog.†Which causes me to wander off before I can type anything out.
Perhaps it’s a side-effect of my brain dropping off the grid for the summer, but I don’t feel like arguing with people these days. And it seems often that if you disagree with someone, that it’s going to end in an argument. Not all the time, I know, but often. Unfortunately, most of the places where I find that I nearly leave a comment is somewhere where I either disagree with the author, or disagree with something that has been said in a comment. I’m tired of arguing my opinions1, and so just don’t bother leaving them out in the open where they must be defended.
I miss the time before web 2.0, when clickthru commenting was the norm. You would read a post, leave a comment, and never think about it again. If the blog author had something to say in response, they’d email it to you, but you were under no obligation to reply. I understand how the blog scene evolved to what we see today, with inline comment responses, but I’m not a fan of the expectation that the commenter must come back and respond to a response to what they had said. Mostly because I don’t want to come back.
I realize that this is entirely a personal problem. That others—many others—have no problem with the back and forth of comment discussion. It’s just an old hang-up from an old internet. I know there are ways to get around it, with coComment, co.mment, and commentful2; ways for me to upgrade my own site and allow my visitors easier access to ongoing conversation. But I’ve been a stick in the mud for so long that I almost sort of like the view from here.
My social internet experience is a bit slower, a bit more thought out. If I leave a comment, I’ve really thought about what I was going to say. Because it takes a lot for me to actually type something in that comment box, let alone submit.
If I’ve left you a comment in the last two months, you should feel the love. It’s rare indeed for me to put my words on someone else’s blog. It means I love you terribly.
– “Season,” Almost Here: The Academy Is…
- Not just on the web. Pretty much anywhere. I find myself avoiding topics of conversation if I know that the person I’m talking to has a different opinon than me. Most likely a side-effect of this summer’s brain-dead status.[back]
- Maybe one day I’ll test all the comment trackers. Or just read a review of them. Or just pretend they don’t exist. Hard to say.[back]
I only leave comments if I have something to say that the whole community can benefit from. What’s the point of leaving a comment just for the sake of leaving one? It doesn’t really drive that much traffic, and your reputation will hurt. If I have something specifically for the writer, I’d just e-mail them instead.