Social Media celebrates narcissism and the curated life.
 

And I enjoy that.

It has its place in my life.

But I miss online communities, correspondence, and a soap box that invites meaningful conversation in the comments.

Long live the LoT?

Granted, it's very easy to make time for 140 characters on the fringes of work/family life. A message board probably caters best to my singleton days. Worth a shot in the dark, perhaps.

The decline of the message board was precipitated by Facebook catering to longer posts and easier commenting. It used to be the only people interested in long-form post and riposte were my message board friends. The LoT was my only place to come and masochistically enjoy political discourse and debate pointless pop culture.

But once it started happening on Facebook, I found myself repeating myself, joining the same conversation in 2 places. Until I realized I could just do it once on Facebook and be done with it.

Sadly, as has been observed many times before, the wider audience leads to narrower expression. Far less free to go off and be open when everyone is watching. I miss the smallness.

I miss meeting strangers. The real name policy of facebook pretty much means you only "friend" people you know. Thus you end up connecting more with people from your past you never really liked instead of intriguing strangers who share an interest or two. Considering most of my current friends started out as message board strangers, I find that the saddest prospect of the demise of the message board.

Werd.

Maybe I should try reddit.

'Ello chaps - what's this place then?

Yes, me too. I know Facebook has expanded its horizons, but I don't have the desire to tailor my friends list and share some content with the entire list, and other content with a more narrow list.

I don't want to give that much thought to the forum, I think I just miss the digital communities I had before it came along.

That is a really good point and I wasn't thinking about that side of things. Personally, I miss more meaningful connection/conversation with the people I already know (and like you, many of those people were strangers I first met on a message board). I suppose we're always on the look out for a little piece of strange. ;)

Home sweet home?

I greatly miss the LoT discourses, the park meetups, and the annual traditions/celebrations with the swanksters. Would that I could turn back time...

Facebook can't be blamed for the loss of ALL of that. Times and lives have changed. People got priced out of APs, "traditions" became old-hat, new family additions altered social lives, employment and living situations changed....