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;journeyman a worker who has learned a trade and works for another person usually by the day an 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 attention, or garnered any fame. I guess 90% of the reason is because I’ve jumped platforms like a hot potato over the yearsfrom 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 thatI’m not a free spirit. My life is surrounded with requirements, pressures, expectations, and stresswhich are mostly responsible for my deplorable blogging record.
In the recent past 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 change my use of Tumblr when a single photo of my face garnered many times more attention than a thousand word think-piece about daily life. I considered walking away entirelysurely I don’t have enough to say to warranttwoplatforms. Where is the line between the traditional blog (Blogger, WordPress, TypePad), the middle ground (Tumblr), and the microblog (Twitter) ?Inspite of the reasons to stop writing entirelyand there are manysomething stops me from doing so. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but I am more than willing to speculate on a flaw in my charactera willingness to argue that black is white in the face of adversity. To tilt at windmills.
Over the last couple of years I have read occasional proclimations that “blogging is over”, or “social networks are the new blogging”. I beg to differ (perhaps hindsight will make the detractors my windmills).
I value the written wordbe that a well written blog post, or a note in a paper journal. The words I record are a public journala shared record of my thoughts, experiences, and ideas. They are measured, crafted and curatedput together with care. In comparison, posts to social networks seem no more significant than a cry for attention.