For the past few days I have been perched atop a precarious knife edge - on the one hand deleting, cancelling, and purging huge swathes of my involvement in social networks, and on the other hand clinging to that which I have chosen to persist.
Persist. It’s a strange word - and yet it describes my interaction with the online world quite well. Some are absorbed by the web, some are seduced - I persist. I was here before, I am here now, and I will likely be here when most have gone. Not quite sure if this is a good, or a bad thing.
Among the varius detritus churning within me, the big question - “why?” - has resurfaced. Why take part? Why contribute? Why share?While thinking about this in the past, I have always come to the conclusion that writing about our own life is a form of investment in ourselves - and that giving others the opportunity to comment provides balance.
You may not like what I write, and that’s fine - the differences between people is the good stuff. There’s a famous phrase - “if everybody is special, then nobody is special” - I think it applies here; if we were all the same, nobody would be interesting.Although we don’t set out to be the square peg when we begin writing in the public arena, we inevitably find ourselves acting that part from time to time (how many mixed metaphors can I create while writing this?).
Concordant feedback leads to the affirmation that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. That we are not alone. That we are not quite as weird as we had perhaps imagined.
While we - those who share our thoughts through writing - might continue to do so, the world around us is changing. The platform carrying our words is evolving - we live in exciting times. While Facebook may well have jumped the shark, the movement to share information is bigger than any one service.
We are people. We represent “life” in this global game of capitalism, and commercialisation. While those pulling the strings of the great machinery might wish to mould us to their will, there’s one thing they don’t control - US. Our thoughts, our words, our actions, our dreams, our fears, our love, and our passion. If history informs us anything, it is that life will find a way.
Email. Facebook. Twitter. Skype. YouTube. They are just the messenger. We are the authors of their life blood. Always remember - they need us more than we need them.
We are more valuable than the wizard behind the curtain would have you believe.