Of Socializing, When the Question is: How?
As many of my own thoughts will reassure me, fellows, it is with a certainty at least as precise as popcorn’s coming from a kernel, that I fear all things social networking. Believe me when I recant the idea of a secret dark alliance between the Hell’s Angels and the forty seven space aliens which make up the Holy Templars of Washington producing a plot to study my every life as being something I’m not remiss to hold as truth, I can only assume that all online presence is adverse to my core mission: thwart the sneaky little voices in my head.
However abstract and unlikely akin to the truth that opening paragraph may be, I can certainly assure you that while, smoking guns and acid flashback delusions aside, I’m not quite particularly that paranoid, the looming threat of losing the mystery behind my own two eyes is at least somewhat disconcerting. The wider we’re spread across the Internet, the more information, often random untrue blips stated in the heat of a moment or ridiculousness spouted through keys unrealized in their actual reality, the less there is of us inside of our own skin. Or perhaps more poignantly, the more of you that put out there and record in writing for all time, the less there is to continue developing within you as “all time” proceeds.
That said, I’ve been thinking of an experiment with this new fangled device the kids say their parents are calling Twitter. For those unfamiliar with what Twitter is, it’s basically a tool to make lists with a very definite lean towards making lists about what the user is doing. So Sally McHumphrey’s Twitter feed might read:
- Monday at 7am: Woke up and felt the cruel threat of hangover
- Monday at 11:30pm: Stumbled into a work after a quick stop at the Downs
- Monday at 11:45pm: “Eating” with Jim at Sudsy’s
- Tuesday at 7am: Woke up and felt the cruel threat of hangovdaklsfj
The gist, I believe, has been received. Anyway, I’m not particularly interested in microblogging my life, as I feel that’s much better left to long, drawn out posts such as this one. For truly, if someone is going to spend their short-lived life reading about how I’ve spent mine, the least I can do is offer up and attempt at making it a bit more interesting. However, I am interested in my own little tweet, where I’ve decided to just send a quick twat (I’m new to Twitter, so the terminology may seem inadvertently hilarious or at times lacking in humor all together; I can assure you that neither is the case.) whenever I’m doing something that I perceive to have value. And I don’t mean value like 99 cents worth of burger and bun.
If I ride my bike to a coffee shop to work, check. Take a walk to another neighborhood, bingo. Go and have a beer around the corner with a pal, that’ll do.
That way, when life is feeling slow and trudging, I can look back at my small accomplishments, as gratifying as they are to me in my own life.
Up Next: A Set of Nearly Midnight