How Twitter, FriendFeed & Lifestreaming are Transforming the Web

March 20, 2008 / By Mark Krynsky

Here’s a quote from Stan ShroederÂ from his story So, Is FriendFeed The Next Big Thing?

I can barely find time to comment on blog posts; why the hell would I comment on bits and pieces of my (or someone elseâ€™s) online activity?

In following Lifestreaming over the last year I have seen some big changes happening. All of the aggregation going on is causing such a firehose of data that it’s reducing our attention span as a group and making it harder to effectively react to it. Steve Rubel wrote a story a while back about the Attention Crash. In that post he stated the following

We are reaching a point where the number of inputs we have as individuals is beginning to exceed what we are capable as humans of managing. The demands for our attention are becoming so great, and the problem so widespread, that it will cause people to crash and curtail these drains. Human attention does not obey Moore’s Law.

I think this is transforming us into a “micro” based culture on the web. It’s becoming harder to find the time to sit down and spend hours planning and writing posts. I’m usually pretty methodical about my blogging. I like to provide a lot of detail whether it’s in the form of research, creating detailed screenshots, testing other services, etc… This has become increasingly more difficult as I continue to join the ranks in this new Hyper Connected Web.

So getting back to Stan’s comment, I think he illustrates the problem being addressed by services like Twitter & FriendFeed. People are losing interest in commenting on blog posts.Â This dialog is usually limited to the vacuum that is justÂ the author and other commenters. Twitter and FriendFeed offers usÂ the intimacy ofÂ sharing ourselves and our data with our immdediate circle of friends. These services are increasing our distractionsÂ and thusÂ reducing the time we spendÂ commenting on blog posts. It’sÂ so muchÂ easier to quip on bits of data with your friends as a captive audience while still adding your voice to the stream.Â

Â The other part of the equation is that Twitter & FriendFeed offers people this hyper connectivity that provides instant gratification from peers.Â As we pay more attention to and contribute to these new venues I feel we are training ourselves and transforming into “micro-posters”. Steve also wrote another post titled “Wither Blogging? Not Yet, But Perhaps Soon”Â where he discusses the afformentioned Attention CrashÂ as well asÂ new mobile tools and social services are what’s fueling this trend.

Those are my initial impressions as to what’s been changing as of late. I’m not sure how they will affect myself and others in the long term but it is happening. I think the future will be determined by the evolution of services on the web and I’m sure these changes will continue to re-shape themselves as more innovation occurs in this new decentralized web that’s being created.

Updates

“I feel like I have gotten to the point where I have some uneasiness if I am not â€œkeeping up with it all.â€ The rational side of me knows this is nonsense, but the side of me that now craves information keeps on going.” – quote from article at Keener Living. I also suffer from the “keeping up with it all” syndrome mainly because I am plagued by the “I don’t want to miss anything” syndrome.

People Are Commenting On Your Blog Posts – On Other Websites from Blogherald.com discusses the issue of decentralized comments.

The Conversation Has Left the Blogosphere from Read Write Web discusses methods of how to track the decentralized data.

About The Author

Mark Krynsky

I created Lifestream Blog and hope you enjoy the site. I'm always looking for contributors so contact me if you're interested. You can follow the rest of what I like to write about at my personal site.