Whether you want to believe it or not, the way a particular social network is designed can have wide-reaching effects on our behavior. Staying plugged into any network, digital or otherwise, for a prolonged amount of time can begin to change us unconsciously in a way we don’t realize until we finally become untethered. Here’s a little anecdote of why I’m iterating this particular message now.
Taking a break from Plurk
Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Plurk, an offbeat microblogging service that’s been popular with a healthy niche (see here for a great review). Plurk’s unusual in that it provides vibrant real-time feedback through use of a central timeline and is particularly sticky due to its Karma feature and rapid rate of updates and replies. However, these unique advantages also prove to be one large disadvantage: if you let it, the service can take up a ton of free time!
Last night, I made the mistake of letting Plurk eat up a bit too much of my availability, and intended to remedy the issue this evening with an iron fist: no Plurk! Instead, I opted to spend (less) time on some of my other less demanding networks, like Pownce.
