Sarah
Workflow: Login. No new notifications. Check home. No interesting conversations. Conclusion: tumbleweed. @dogtrax @tellio @lauraritchie
Aug 9, 2017 at 10:42pmWeb
Show threadChuck PearsonAug 10, 2017

@Nomadwarmachine @lauraritchie @tellio @dogtrax Critical mass for conversations is hard.

And I've become quite okay with letting tumbleweed tumble by from time to time - especially when many of the usual suspects are traveling around the countryside, around the world really.

Show threadLaura Ritchie 🌸Aug 10, 2017

@ShorterPearson @dogtrax @tellio @Nomadwarmachine Hopefully you mean it's tumbleweed at your work. Here there is something different. For example, I have plenty to say, but the things I choose to say are just that- chosen, and it creates the space around you.

It's 5:45am. I can't sleep. I promise it's not tumbleweed, but (figuratively) a fierce electric storm here the wind has lifted me straight off the ground. I like to be tethered and off the ground, but not this way.
saying that... (cont)

Show threadLaura Ritchie 🌸Aug 10, 2017

@Nomadwarmachine @tellio @dogtrax @ShorterPearson you are right that sometimes there is silence here. It takes people to talk- sometimes people (me certainly) say things that are (hopefully) valuable, but not necessarily conversation starters.

It's like the table. If we want to eat at the table, someone needs to make the food- and this is far more a home than a restaurant, so we're our own cooks. There's always a spare chair and is good to stop (for me), even if to watch tumbleweed.

Show threadAlgot (Still)Aug 10, 2017

@Nomadwarmachine @dogtrax @tellio @lauraritchie

Another take:

Not tumbleweed, busy people in August.

Some grasping for the remnants of summer vacation.

Others grinding to prepare for day one of school.

Too busy for social media.

...unless retired.

Show threadAlgot (Still)Aug 10, 2017

@lauraritchie @tellio @dogtrax @Nomadwarmachine

And even if retired, enjoying the cool days not so typical of August, stepping outside of the walls and mainly ignoring social media.

(Some might even be struggling with animation.)

Show threaddogtraxAug 10, 2017
@Algot @lauraritchie @tellio @Nomadwarmachine All that, too.
Show threaddogtraxAug 10, 2017
@Nomadwarmachine @lauraritchie @tellio I come here to find quiet, actually. Not silence, but a quieter pace to my connections and my writing. Slowing down. It's this little corner of my world that I'm still trying to figure out, through #smallstories and #thinkingsmall. I'm being conscious about not replicating my bird-site experience here. But it may not be for everyone.
Show threadAlgot (Still)Aug 10, 2017

@dogtrax @Nomadwarmachine @lauraritchie @tellio

I like the idea of your seeing the quieter pace of this space.

I do feel less sense of rush, more time (and space) for contemplation instead of mere reaction.

"not...for everyone" is part of the social media quandry. Staking out a net in one stream is challenge enough for many (most?). Seining from several streams is possible, but it is far more difficult to provide new stock.

Few of us are good at multi-stream management.

Show threaddogtraxAug 10, 2017
@Algot @Nomadwarmachine @lauraritchie @tellio Algot, I think you asked here the other day: is it ok if I update only once or twice a day? I wasn't sure of your context, but I meant to say, fine by me! I savor your posts, and that experience might lessen if there were more (if that makes sense, in a respectful kind of way)
Show threadAlgot (Still)Aug 10, 2017

@dogtrax @Nomadwarmachine @lauraritchie @tellio

Kevin,

Are you, at this moment, watching more than one stream?

Are you engaged with simultaneous non-stream tasks?

Is effective multi-tasking asking too much of ourselves?

I find that I prefer to focus for a while (making the word of the day post, for example) then drop that into the stream and check what's been flowing by while I was occupied. I'm not keeping two windows open side by side.

Show threaddogtraxAug 10, 2017
@Nomadwarmachine @lauraritchie @tellio Perhaps, too, a strategy is to try to find connections here you don't have elsewhere. I have a center of friends that I know but I am conscious of trying to follow folks I don't know, in the fields of art and music and more.
Show threadTellioAug 10, 2017
@dogtrax @lauraritchie @Nomadwarmachine This is very much my strategy. I find people to read and follow every day in both the local and federated time lines. Sometimes I just comment and not follow. I never do that in birdland. At the core of my work here is #smallstories. I really was inspired by Teju Coles' Blind Spot. I have been dissecting his small stories and mimicking them as part of my morning practice
Show threadtutormentor1Aug 10, 2017

@tellio @dogtrax @lauraritchie @Nomadwarmachine

I spend a little time every day in Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and now Mastodon, to see what is being posted in my feeds and by people I have been connecting with.

I find nuggets of value that accumulate over time.

However, in my personal/professional efforts of helping inner city kids, I still find too few people sharing in any of these feeds.

I'm still figuring out all of these, Mastodon included. #smallstories and similar tags helps.

Show threadKateAug 10, 2017
@dogtrax @tellio @lauraritchie @Nomadwarmachine I think this also works for me. Mastodon has connected me to people I didn't know and wouldn't have met. And I think while Twitter accustomed me to a busy pace of content streaming at me, and it took a while to accept that here you might walk a mile to the mailbox and seemingly not find anything, if I just wait quietly there's always something that comes along that's worth thinking about without rushing.
Show threadBᴬᴿᴼᴺ Vᴼᴺ WᵁᴺᴰᴵᴮᴬᴿAug 10, 2017

@Nomadwarmachine

You've got some 'notifications' now... From good and smart tumbleweeds.

@dogtrax @tellio @lauraritchie