For the past several years I have lived a curious online existencefloating between the various social networks and blog platforms. I’ve been searching for an appropriate term to describe my behaviour for the last few minutes, and the only one that comes to mind is “journeyman”.
Mirriam Webster has the following to say;journeymana worker who has learned a trade and works for another person usually by the dayan experienced reliable worker, athlete, or performer especially as distinguished from one who is brilliant or colorfulIt makes sense, doesn’t itit often feels like I’ve written more than most, I’ve been around longer than most, and yet I’ve never really sought the attention, or garnered any fame. I guess 90% of the reason is because I’ve jumped platforms like a hot potato over the years from WordPress, to LiveJournal, Yahoo 360, Blogger, Posterous, Tumblr, Vox you name it, I’ve written there.
I’ve been a nightmare to follow.
Perhaps “rolling stone” is a better term, and tremendously romantic from a literary point of view. It brackets me with the Kerouacs and Ginsbergs of this worldfree spirits forging their own path through life. I guess the only problem is that I’m not a free spirit. My life is surrounded with requirements, pressures, expectations, and stresswhich are mostly responsible for my deplorable blogging record over recent months.
When life became hectic, I thought the social networks and microblogs would be a good alternative. I was wrong. There is a shallow element to micro-blogging (yes, Tumblr, I’m looking at you)your thoughts and experiences are too often passed over with a single click of a “like” button, or a one word comment. Where your circle of “followers” may approach the hundreds, in reality you know nobody, and have little real opportunity to foster real relationships.
I realised it was time to give up on Tumblr when a single photo of my face garnered many times more attention than a thousand word think-piece about daily life.
Over the last year I have begun to read occasional proclimations that “blogging is over”, or “social networks are the new blogging”. I beg to differ. A blog is really just a public journala shared record of our thoughts, experiences, and ideas.
Did the first newspapers predict the end of books? I think not.