To begin,
Blogs are something I read everyday, for work and to catch up with family and friends. I would even include myself in the list of people who've done cyber surveillance on old friends. In fact, I think this reconnecting with people from times gone can be one of the most useful purposes of the social media. At the same time, because of what I do, I recognize that blogs and social networks and other social media can be really good for other things as well, (like things that make money :-)) promoting and marketing and workplace efficiency. But I think the thing social media does best is the way it connects people . This can be both good and bad. I've seen this manifest itself through the visceral attacks people write and also in the way childhood friends reconnect. But lately I have been left with the feeling that while social media can connect us, these connections are weak. If anything, I think social media makes us feel less guilt about not calling our Facebook friends. We are allowed to "keep up with them" by reading their blogs or status postings, looking at their photographs, without really deeply connecting like we would over dinner or a nice phone call.
Please don't misunderstand me though. I don't think we should try and deeply connect with all 200 of our friends on Facebook, I am just saying that we need to recognize social media's communications for what they are: superficial connections. Meaningful? Purposeful? Yes. Just not deeply personal in the way that a cup of coffee can turn into a teary conversation or a pint can turn into remembering the "good olde days."
Maybe that is already obvious to other people. I just don't want to overstate why I've started a blog. I just want to begin in full recognition of this medium's limiations.
In summation,
I am hoping this blog is a way for those near and far to know more about what I've been thinking and at the same time give me a chance to release some pent up musings. A long time ago, when I was just a child, I really earnestly wanted to be a writer. So in some ways this blogging is my childish, egotistical desire to be read.
Cheers.
