I seem to have abandoned new media for newer media, or old new media for new new media, or however you want to describe it, as can be easily discerned by anyone who’s been following me here as well as on my Twitter feed. I used to make posts on an almost daily basis—44 in December ’08 alone, for example—but since starting to tweet, that’s fallen way off. I’ve only made two LJ entries in May, not counting this one.

Instead of posting mini-essays here, I’ve been using twitter multiple times per day, and letting those updates transfer to my facebook page. Here, for example, is what you would have seen had you been following my twitter feed yesterday while I attended Balticon.

7:38 AM pulling out of the driveway and heading off to Balticon. See you there!

8:25 AM decided to stop and fill the Jeep with gas so as not to spend my Balticon by the side of the highway.

9:59 AM dumped a few cases of soda at the Balticon con suite and now heading off to autograph for an hour … if anyone shows!

10:39 AM autographing next to Baen author Steve White, who seems to be selling a heck of a lot of books. Strangely, this is the first time we’ve met.

12:59 PM finished the panel on Submission Faux Pas and heading off for lunch with Oz Whiston and family.

2:58 PM digesting pad thai and waiting for Tom Doyle to begin reading “Crossing Borders.”

3:53 PM listening to Tom Doyle read a story he wrote at Clarion: “It is better to be with monsters than to be alone.”

4:28 PM sitting in the Balticon con suite listening to David Louis Edelman complain about the uselessness of Twitter.

4:55 PM about to pontificate on the Balticon panel “Are Short Stories Worth Writing?”

6:02 PM finished telling the Balticon audience yes yes yes oh god yes, and now heading off to dinner with the Newtons and the Stewarts.

6:33 PM studying the menu at Jesse Wong’s Kitchen. Which shall it be? Shrimp Szechuan Style or Roasted Peking Duck?

8:04 PM watching a Balticon panel on “Buried Giants” with Charles Stross, Mark Owing, Gene Wolfe, Bob Chase, and Darrell Schweitzer

8:46 PM didn’t expect to hear Richard Shaver and Lionel Fanthorpe noted on a panel about writers who should be unburied, as they should stay buried.

about 21 hours ago just got stopped at a sobriety checkpoint. Told them about Balticon. Luckily, the officers couldn’t tell I was high on science fiction.

Last year, before I’d begun twittering, I’d instead covered my Balticon experience by writing multiple posts, as you can see here, here, and here. Will I bother doing the same this year? Perhaps. I’m not sure. By the time tomorrow comes, thanks to all the twittering, it probably won’t seem as urgent. Which would be a shame.

But the experience of real-time contact with other Balticon attendees was fascinating. For example, Oz Whiston only made it to Tom Doyle’s reading because she’d seen my tweet about it. I received menu advice on what to have for dinner from people I didn’t even know. And following the stream of updates from all the other Balticon attendees who were twittering yesterday made me feel absolutely omnipresent.

Something has been lost and something has been gained—and figuring out whether the gains and losses balance out is going to be fun.