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Posts Tagged ‘introspection’

Nothing Worthwhile = Worthless?

March 1, 2010 ghp Leave a comment

Questions in my head…

Is feeling like one has nothing worthwhile to say the same as feeling like one’s thoughts/contemplations are worthless or unworthy of passing along?

That is, I think, quite at the heart of blogging, is it not? Sometimes, something more than mere blogging ennui hits & causes a lack of posting. Real life? Sure, that’s part of it, as things out in non-virtual space can intrude on the happenings (and desire to participate in) the regular online neighborhoods. Fear can also be a part of it, as there are myriad examples these days of folks getting bitten in the ass by stuff that they’ve written and/or put online in some form. Innocent commenting, not to mention pointed venting, about work/home/church/etc. can come back and get you — and that’s frightening in a great many ways (economically/relationship-wise/etc…).

No, what can happen, regarding the question of blogging/tweeting/facebooking or not, is almost existential in nature: Is what I have to say worth saying? Does it matter? Do I matter?

So much of being online is finding a voice – a point of view – that can be held to consistently, such that one can, and indeed want to, write regularly & compellingly. One needs to be able to do so with confidence — the confidence that: 1) one’s point-of-view is solid and compelling enough to interest the writer to write without fear of ridicule, reprisal, or repercussion (or even – especially! – lack of outside interest), and 2) one’s subject area(s) and writing style are compelling and interesting enough to engage the readers, should one be so lucky as to garner attention.

This confidence is often tenuous and all too easily undermined, not only by the factors listed above (e.g., life, fear, etc…) that result from too little time and/or thought, but also by too much thought. IOW, “paralysis through analysis”, wherein one gets so hung up on analyzing all the whys & wherefores of online writing, one ends up in a vapor lock of non-writing.

It just becomes easier to withdraw and focus ever more inward, rather than taking any steps to regain any focus and get back in the habit of writing, so as to develop the “muscles” that enable compelling participation and, thus, the resulting confidence that helps perpetuate the whole enterprise.

It’s a morbidly fascinating conundrum that I’ve found, and continue to find, myself in. Don’t quite know how I’m going to get out of it (esp. the fear part), but at least I’ve got this first post going for me…

-ghp


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Twitterpated

July 31, 2009 ghp Leave a comment

Gracious, it’s been almost three weeks since I posted anything here. I’ve been feeling oddly disquieted of late, but now I feel downright guilty about it.

Back just before the start of the year, I started getting more involved in Facebook, and that siphoned no small amount of my time & attention away from writing things in longer form here.

Now, within the past month or so, I’ve started to get more into Twitter (@glenpiper). This has, much to my surprise I must admit, siphoned off even more time & attention away from blogging. Frankly, Twitter has even siphoned time & attention away from FB.

I didn’t think that Twitter would turn out to be as interesting to me as it has. Nor did I think it would actually end up being useful, as evidenced by my late & somewhat reluctant entry into the arena. That said, I’m actually very surprised at how useful Twitter has turned out to be for me. I’ve had to wrestle with how to use it productively (something that I’m still doing, btw), but as a tool for social, personal, and professional interaction, as well as for entertainment and information, Twitter has proven to be far more useful than I ever thought possible.

What I’m struggling with the most now, though, is this: How do I strike the proper balance between the (for me) purely social space that is FB, the social/informational/whatever microblogging space that is Twitter, and the still useful and necessary longer form thinking space that is traditional blogging?

The biggest downcheck I’ve found in FB & Twitter (again, for me) is this: it is so approachable in its immediacy that it’s all too tempting & easy to fall into shallow patterns of thinking & reacting, while giving short shrift to more contemplative & thoroughly considered, longer form, thinking & writing.

The grind of daily life is such that the reactive forms of interaction are more gratifying, at least instantly, and thus more (for lack of a better word) doable. The downside, though, is that they bring with them the accumulation of a not-insignificant latent angst, as one is exposed to the unrelentingly high-paced, yet shallow-in-presentation, Twitter stream.

Aside from the micro- vs. regular blogging question, another issue that’s crossed my mind is that of audience. For the most part, I think there’s a majority of my audience that follows me in two or all three of the spaces. If I had to guess, however, I’d wager that more folks will see what I blurt out via Twitter. Then again, I also know that there are some folks who only see what I do if it shows up on FB. The good thing is that I’ve figured out how to get what I do here, in the long-form “regular” blog” to show up in the other two spaces, either as a “note” (FB), or as an announcement w/a link (Twitter). I could very well be over-, and thus out-, thinking myself on this particular question/issue…

Ultimately, I guess, it’s about finding the right balance for me. It doesn’t help, in some ways, to see that there are some folks out there who are doing a far better job of pumping out content in all three spaces, particularly in the long-form space (’cause *that’s* where reps are made, don’cha know, along with Issues, Etc. Blog of the Week selections, right Frank? Besides, I fancy myself as erudite and able to churn out well-turned phrases as any in the Lutheran blogosphere — A man can have his conceits, can’t he? As the great bard Axl Rose opined, “I’ve worked to hard for my illusions just to throw them all away.” But I digress…). I guess I’ll just keep grinding away as best I can – not everyone can be as prolific as McCain… ;)

-ghp

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