Internet Migration Patterns

It’s funny to think about the migratory patterns of people on the internet. Back when I was in Japan fifteen years ago, I spent the majority of my time socializing (as much as you can socialize) on the Kenzerco forums. In time my attention split to different forums as well, but Kenzer was always part of my daily check. Heck, it was in part because of the time I spent immersed there that I got some of my earliest published work done.

But I just realized I haven’t visited the Kenzerco forums in ages.  Now all my time is spent/wasted on Facebook. And it’s not like I abandoned the people I knew there.   Most of the people I followed on Kenzer are on Facebook so I barely noticed the transition.

In fact I don’t really check any forums now.  The only one I visit regularly is for the game Elite Dangerous​, and that’s because I’m always hoping to get some kind of insider information about the game. And I doubt that will last. All it would take is for the majority of the people I currently know there to connect in a group on Facebook and I’d probably fade from that website as well.

I’m not saying this to suggest how “wired” in I am or moving with the times. Far from it. Plenty of people have transitioned away from Facebook and only Tweet now… and that’s a medium I still can’t fully wrap my head around, at least in terms of why anyone would constantly use it.  At the very least you can fully express an idea on Facebook. On Twitter it’s more about soundbites.

But it’s funny to think about how our circles both shift and stay the same over time in an organic rather than forced way.  I wonder about how quickly people shift from place to place, and who stubbornly stay on one particular format when everyone else has long since moved on.

Someday cyber archaeologists are going to use complex algorithms to comb through this historical data and give us answers.