Lisa and Ella are sleeping in a tent in the back yard. It has been so nice today that Ella wanted to camp out. She already “camped out” in the living room two nights ago so I guess she was in the mood for the real thing.

Max – who was scared of the dark outside I think – is sleeping upstairs. So I am in the basement online. I can’t seem to focus on reading so I started playing around with websites (this one in particular).

So that led me to the question that is the title of this post.

I have been kicking around the idea of using this blog as more of a diary for family and friends who care about my life outside of politics or books or whatever.

Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social tools seemed to sap the energy out of my blogging here – that and my lack of time – for a long while. And I was always wondering how best to use this space. Seemed a waste to just have it sit here (silly perhaps, but how I think).

So tonight I once again had the idea to use this as a diary of my life as a Christian, husband, father, etc. So this is, I guess, the post to kick things off.

Only time will tell if this is just another false start in a long line of fits and starts.

If you took the time to click on a link and visit, let me know what you think.

Asymmetric follow is why I use Twitter regularly and Facebook much less often. With Twitter’s model, I can find people I’m interested in, whether or not they know me, and learn about them and their lives and thoughts. Others can include me in their lists. You become “friends” with complete strangers over time, by communicating with them (responding with @messages for example), perhaps by mutual following. In fact, Twitter’s wonderful system of @ messages means that anyone can address me – and so I find myself having conversations with complete strangers as well. I actually follow my @ messages more faithfully than I do my planned Follow list.

On Facebook, I’m expected to approve every request, and alas, I turn down far more than I accept. Amazingly, few people who I don’t know even bother to explain who they are and why they want to be my friend. I sometimes do accept strangers who make a good case for why I’d be interested in them, but I always ignore those I don’t know who don’t bother to even say hello. Ditto for LinkedIn and Plaxo and all the other greedy networks that are clamoring for my time and attention while requiring me to take explicit steps to approve or deny each request.

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Asymmetric follow is also a good way to boost viral growth, as it encourages people to try the service without having to be an active user. We learned long ago from Usenet and mailing lists that there are always more lurkers than posters.

My problem has always been the different uses I have for FB.  I use it to connect with friends and family (including those I might have lost touch with) but I also use it to network.  Those who want to network with me in the political realm dwarf my actual “friends.”

So at some point you have to decide what requests you want to accept  and/or at what point it all gets to be too much.  I haven’t found an easy way to manage the information flow.  So either I don’t connect with people or I find my actual friend’s information frequently gets buried by all these other more prolific political connections.

For a variety of reasons I find myself using Twitter more and Facebook less.  It just seems easier to follow people and actually have a conversation. I also use multiple Twitter accounts so that I can connect with people and provide content and conversations on common ground/topics. Sometimes this splitting of subjects feels strained but it seems to work best for me.

What about you?  How do use various social networking sites and why?

1. Was sorely tempted to ignore this tagging thing and is not going to tag 25 people.
2. Likes his hair short but hates having to go to the barber all the time.
3. Is a University of Michigan fan stuck in Columbus, Ohio.
4. Accepts lots of Facebook friends that he doesn’t really “know” because he hasn’t figured out where to draw the line between actual friends and online networking.
5. Has a book buying addiction which he tries to control by getting publishers to send him free books.
6. Feels guilty when he doesn’t review said books or doesn’t do so in a timely manner.
7. Wonders why he is using the third person to write this?
8. Used to think he was not an addictive type personality but has since changed his mind.
9. Needs to find a way to exercise now that he has kids.
10. Has four computers and a Blackberry but isn’t a computer techie.
11. Has almost completely given up watching TV except for sports.
12. Favorite TV show is This Old House.
13. Is worried that his is less than two years from being 40 and his career is in shambles.
14. Wonders if that last one was too personal?
15. Hates Jim Tressle with the heat of a thousand suns.
16. Would love to live on a lake in Michigan.
17. Is an obsessive reader but has a hard time forcing himself to write and write well.
18. Actually enjoys watching golf on TV.
19. Has been arrested (handcuffed, fingerprinted, etc.)
20. Once fell out of a breadfruit tree from 20 feet up, landed on a cinder block, and walked away.
21. Once wore a blouse to high school for a dollar.
22. Has lost two dogs in a little over a year and misses them terribly.
23. Will admit that the loss of those dogs makes him cry (sometimes even in public).
24. Sometimes wishes he hadn’t started working in partisan politics.
25. Took six years to graduate from college (from start to finish not 6 years of actual classes).

A good blogger lives in constructive fear of two things: writing for everyone, and writing for no one. Recognizing that your boss, your kids, or even your future self will be able to read your work long after you’ve written it should impose some temperance and moderation, while the knowledge that every one of your readers could simply opt out should encourage selectivity and creativity. Facebook, however, smashes both of these healthy constraints to self-expression. The semi-captive audience of all those friends fosters the illusion that somebody cares what you had for breakfast, while the exclusivity of the network implies that your more ill-considered announcements will be charitably received. Reading the status updates of long-lost friends and acquaintances convinced me I’d like them better if they stayed lost for longer.