I blogged about Orkut a gazillion times yesterday. You're probably thinking, there she goes again, championing another online "thang of the week." It is kind of like that, but I'm not sorry for it. I really really like the place. I'm already seeing little changes here and there that make me think either (A.) some folks are listening to what we want or (B.) those working on enhancements have a pretty good idea where things should go.
And it's nice starting another community--I haven't done that since blog sisters, and goodness knows I've been talking enough lately about my recent disappointment with the effects of mainstream interest in "using" blogs that the distraction of Orkut is a welcome one for me.
Shelley has a great post on her Orkut wanderings and why she quit, which, if I follow her correctly, is because it takes up too much time that she needs to be spending writing.
I have the same dilemma and I've been mentally punishing myself over it. I have three client meetings this week, a kid getting over strep, a baby sitter coming this evening so I can keep an appointment I really need to keep, a house that I'm ashamed to have the baby sitter walk into for fear of disappearing her (I like using disappear as a verb--I never heard it used that way until I moved south, and this is the first time I've done it in print, and so anyway...)...
At the same time, without Orkut I would be approaching all of the above tasks with less energy, less enthusiasm, less of a rush, less hope for change, and less passion. The simple truth about me--the thing that's kept me blogging this long despite its incredible time demands--is that what I get from and give to the weblog community, bleed over into my realworld self and my realworld activities.
Orkut, so far, is feeding those good parts of who I am. Then me, the more alive me, the more connected me, is carrying that new-found, upbeat (or at least more alive) energy into the things I NEED to do to survive (namely working and mothering).
This, perhaps, is a justification of my spending the time I should be spending elsewhere on Orkut, but then, flip it over and just maybe some of the time I *was* spending elsewhere is better served on Orkut.
I just don't know yet, but I'm hanging on to my new-found enthusiasm with both hands and my front row of teeth.
